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Good morning!
>I have some not-agility trials coming up, including later this week. These will be great opportunities to practice outside the ring engagement and pre-trial readiness. >
Perfect! Sounds like these will be fun opportunities for training various games š
>I also sometimes attend a local agility class, and can more deliberately practice there.>
This will be useful too – even if you want only attend sometimes, it provides a good bridge between home training and trials.
>Skizzle acted a bit like he does for post-bath zoomies. Iām pretty sure the tall and wet grass led to this. >
It could totally have been the grass, if he is used to dry grass in particular! He was totally scampering about and seemed pretty happy for most of it, but also might have been avoiding the wet grass when he ran past the jump at :29 and didnāt come out of the tunnel.
Since wet grass might be something he encounters during training and trials, you can take him out when it is wet and just do tricks for treats or play with a toy. That can help him not get an ick from it LOL
The run here on the video went pretty well, especially because his brain was also processing wet grass! The opening line looked really good.
At :24 he just needed you to take one more step to the jump after he exited the tunnel.
For the tunnel discrimination – you did a FC there at :31 which turned him nicely to the correct end of the tunnel. The other option is to keep him on your left side and use your right hand to draw him past the āwrongā end of the tunnel to the other side of it.
Nice work here! Let me know how he does in the dry grass or during the next wet grass event š
Tracy
This is the perfect age to sort out reinforcement strategies, so you can have a bigger toolbox for his training. Other dogs and agility are notoriously unreliable as reinforcement or arousal strategies, and we are adding movement where we can.
So the next step is to grab some video of what happens when you try to get toy play in different places. That will help figure out what is happening. You can also take him new places on a long line, and do a bit of disc/frisbee tosses/rolls. And social learning can be valuable here too: have him and Ella (for example, or any dog that will tug with you) to together in different places. Play tug with the other dog, then offer him the opportunity to play tug. He won’t be restrained in a crate because that can create a lot of frustration – he can be out of leash and joining in the fun.T
Hi!
>When he first got there he didnāt want to come in>
Is this in a different location, or the new building at FF?
>Iāve progressed a little bit and Iāve used some tricks to amp him in new places like playing with Ella first. Getting him wanting to be part of the fun!>
Social support can help but mainly what you are seeing is a higher arousal state by using something more motivating & stimulating. That is why I want to use his toys more in these games and not food. Food is niceā¦ but the arousal state and excitement we want is going to come from toys š Tug, discs, etc – we can modify any of these games to use a higher value motivator to get the same response without needing to rely on another dog as part of that.
Looking at the super bowls game:
The parking lot might have felt desolate to you but he had the distraction of heading directly towards the person holding the video, and also a car alarm going off nearby. That was loud! You might not have noticed it but he more than likely did.
Adding more motion to the bowls definitely helped – better responses in terms of speed and more engaged body language, and less distraction even with the car alarm going off.
>And that I suck timing and throwing under pressure lol!!>
Ha! Yes –
:29-:37 was not as clean about letting him look at you first (you were moving before he looked at you) but the rest looked good šSo the big question is: can he tug there? Even if it is with one hand and a favorite toy š Or even if it is short disc catches and tugging on it?
He did well with the instant focus overall but I just think the food is not the most powerful motivator we have in our toolbox for him. He was able to come in and go to the object, even with passing distractions and the obstacles in the ring (all of which have a lot of value) but his response was more like āthis is fineā and we are looking to get a āthis is GREATā response.
So you can bring him in, let him offer than first engagement with the object, then surprise him by whipping out a favorite toy and playing. The toy can be on you, or pre-set in the environment but I am definitely interested in seeing how the toy can change his feelings about these games.
>Things I learn he likes when I say yes in a squeaky voice.>
This also helps make my argument about toys š Toy play often has squeaky silly voices associated with it! Soā¦ more toy toy š
Nice work here!
Tracy
Hi!
He did really well here!At the beginning when you were doing it on the flat: Remember that you can start with a few more reps of the regular pattern game, to get him into the rhythm of it before disconnecting. He looked a little surprised but was able to find you really well!
He did really well when you added it to the sequence too, even better than he did on the flat! You can keep moving when you disconnect to see if he can keep finding the line. He was correct to just come to you when you stopped moving, so now we can start teaching him to save you and find a line if you are still in motion but disconnected š He is not required to save you if you disconnect, but it sure is nice if he does š
Great job here!
TracyGood morning!
>A bit of context, she is afraid of thunderstorms. >
Poor girl! It has been a hard summer with all of these storms!
>Her first round of the either/or sequences was filled with lots of visiting and looking super stressy, and 2 super slow runs.>
When dealing with fear, you will want to have a plan to get her pumped up and excited on simple stuff, or you will see the stress behaviors come up like happened here. And if you canāt get her pumped and excited to eat, do tricks, and run – then donāt run her so she doesnāt find herself in a state of stress or fear on course.
>Tried 1-2-3 as we went to startline, it didnāt help. Tried the acolyte dial tricks at startline, that didnāt help. >
Was she eating treats with excitement? That is usually the starting point: seeing if she can get really into a reward.
You might have to bring out incredibly high value reinforcement – it can be stuff she never gets (such as chunks of rotisserie chicken, or steak, or something from a classmate that is totally different from what she normally gets as a treat) or a tennis ball or something – and if she is still too worried to happily eat and do patterns and tricks, then that is when I would skip the run and figure something else out. We donāt want fear associated with agility!
>The second round (the one I am sharing here), while I do think she was still a bit stressy, we (my classmates and I) decided to do full on cheer leading while she was running. >
Yes, she was still stressy here especially at the start. Was she able to eat? That tells us a lot about the state of her nervous system in that moment. She did like the cheering and also I think getting her running released some feel-good endorphins so she was able to run.
One thing to consider is if she is stressed out about something: simplify the sequence so that there is no possibility of failure š Make it easy so she can just go fast fast fast – that will help break out of stress too!
She had an error here (your shoulders turned to the front side :51 when you wanted the backside) on the video and you were good about continuing – you donāt even need to mark it or tell her nice try, you can just keep going as if it was totally correct (because she was a good girl there, responding to cues).
So if you get into a stress situation again where she is showing fear, you will want to see if you can get her eating (with mind-glowingly yummy treats) and get her moving (a ready set go start is great for this), so she doesnāt carry any fear into the course.
Nice work here!
TracyHi!
>I love that video you shared! It is exactly what Scholar does. I am working on that and it is going good.>
Great! Keep me posted! It is pretty normal BC behavior š and I figured you could relate to it š
āØ>For some reason I was thinking these videos were going to be posted every 2 weeks like the first class so we were taking our time >We have some āeasyā weeks built on and extra time at the end, so no worries about getting it all done š
I am super proud of his stay when you put the toy on the ground! He was like GAME ON but held the stay like a super good boy for the first two. He broke the 3rd stay, but we can blame it on the cat who was nearby haha. Reminding him to wait really helped.
When you play with this again, lead out a little further because we are going to add to it:
>Iām not sure if he is using his front feet to lift off.>
This grid is soooo easy for him right now – he is balanced and powerful, with good head position. The spacing looked good too. So with that in mind, we can make it harder and add some challenge for him.
I think he is 9-10 months old at this point? That means we can give him a bar to jump on jump 2. Start at 6ā or 8ā and see how it goes (being sure to lead out a little more so he has more room to land after the bar). We can see what he does and add more and more challenge, bit by bit šThe smiley face wraps after the tunnel went well! Because he is young and inexperienced, try to do it in smaller bits: wrap to tunnel, then reward. Then you can add wrap-tunnel-wrap then reward. That will help keep building up the value for finding the obstacles – right now the value is mainly on watching you, so more frequent rewards will help shift that. Also, with fewer obstacles, you will be able to maintain connection better – when the connection was not clear here, he was not sure what to do and you can see a bit of frustration behavior (jumping up on you). Keeping the sequences to 2 or 3 or 4 in a row then reward will help him look for the obstacles more and more. You were had 13 in a row here, which was too hard for him in these early stages š
As he continues to build up his speed, you will want to use tunnel bags to keep the tunnel from moving š If you donāt have tunnel bags, you can buy them or you can save a lot of money and make them: I have used water jugs in plastic bags with the bags tied together to create tunnel bags, and I have also gotten bags of sand from Home Depot, covered them in garbage bags and tied them together (more garbage bags haha) for at-home tunnel bags š
Great job here!
Tracy
Hi – this is an interesting series of videos, thanks for posting it! She is finding the lines really well and super fast, so the handling needs to be early and clear.
Having clean starts makes a HUGE difference. Having her sit and stay, even if you are working a small piece, is really important. Bring her in on a leash like you would at a trial, and line her up facing the jump you want her to take. Be SUPER consistent with this. A messy start where you fling her into a sequence makes the handling unclear so things go sideways very quickly.
She is definitely bitey when you are in her landing spot after backside, and I think I have figured out why it is happening MORE (not less) based on these videos.
In those spots, you have stopped moving and you are reaching your hands towards her (like at :06 on the 2nd video and some of the other backsides). This is coming from all the of times you were reaching for her and picking her up throughout the trainings here.
There is a pattern developing where after a handler error where she goes someplace you didnāt intend but accidentally cued: you stop, reach for her, pick her up. This is punishing to her, based on the behavior it builds: she was getting more and more frustrated, harder to catch, and more and more jumpy and bitey.
For example, on the 2nd video at :15 you picked her up. It was after it looked like you cued a few more obstacles after the backside. She allowed it but seemed confused. Then you picked her up again at :25 (after handler error) and also after handler error (sending her at the tunnel at :40 and :51) so she jumped up at you. She is allowing you to pick her up and pet her but I think that will ultimately backfire and create frustration/avoidance/biting in higher arousal situations.
Then you were in her way when she did get the backside, praised, put your hands thereā¦ she bit you. You reached for her and got some avoidance there
After 1:28 – now there is a toy involved and you were not stopping and reaching for her, so she was much better about not jumping up at you (or biting). The handling was unclear on the wrap jump at 1:58 ad 2:02 but she was much more willing to keep working because you were not stopping and petting her or reaching for her. The presence of the toy was a context cue that reinforcement was still available, which is good and also needs to be faded for trials.
3rd video: this is where we really see the fallout from your reaching for her to pick her up after a handler error.
She jumped up, you picked her up (:04)
You sent her off course, she came back to you and you picked her up again.
You sent her off course, she came back to you, you reached for her to pick her up again at :28 – she is now really frustrated and jumping up more and looks to be biting and refusing to be caught.The same happened at :45 – big jumping/biting and barking.
It was MUCH better to keep going :55-1:10! Much smoother and fast, no biting or jumping. She is doing her best to respond but canāt be correct without correct handling.
For example at 1:21, all of the physical cues said front of the jump and the verbal happened after she had committed to the front of the jump, so she took the front side. You stopped and reached for her (which she perceives as punishment) so she jumped up at you and bit at you repeatedly for 15 seconds until you brought the toy out
When you were trying to get the backside but did NOT try to pick her up, she kept working and trying (1:46 – 1:53). No jumping up or biting!
And look at the rest of the video: even when the starts were not clean, you kept going, did not reach for her or pick her up, and she kept trying and did not bite you.
So what is In Synch telling us? A bunch of important info!
For the harder skills, break it down and give her big connection. And if she fails – assume it was handler error and keep going to reward something.
You can also angle the jumps for the backside lines, making the backsides easier to find and the front sides harder to find. And adding wings to the backsides will help too!
If something goes wrong: do not reach for her to pick her up. It is punishing to her and it is resulting in more frustrating and biting, not less.
Instead of stopping or reaching for her, keep going and reward something else. Then look at the video to see why she went to the wrong line so you can make an adjustment for the next rep.
Keep super clean starts and line ups when you are starting a run or a sequence really helps! Be very consistent with these.
And separately, keep working on the remote reinforcement so she doesnāt rely on the context cue of a toy in your hand to help regulate arousal.
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Good morning! Lots of good stuff here!
Pop out 1 with Lift:
When she took the backside of the first jump: it look like it was because she was facing you in the stay then when she turned back to look at the jump, the change in position and your motion set her to the backside. Surprising? Yes! But keep going – stopping can be confusing for her because from her perspective that was the correct choice.
When you got going, the run looked really good!
>then the wheels fell off after so we free-styled to the leash.>
The freestyle moment was also really good LOL! You were saying tunnel, yes – but you had already turned to the backside of the jump at :37 when you started it so she was correct to follow the physical cue to find which tunnel you were talking about.
The tunnel cue was earlier at 1:06 (starting on the jump before the tunnel) but I think you can actually start a āgo tunnelā verbal and acceleration as soon as she exits the wrap/spin. She doesnāt need a jump cue there (that might actually promote a bit of collection) and starting a big GO TUNNEL can get her powering up the line to the tunnel even sooner.>Experimenting with her jumping into my arms since she has been getting good about that in contexts outside of agility and Iād like her to be comfortable with it after a run as an option to get to our treats quickly incase itās very busy outside the ring. >
I do like the jumping-in-arms end of run thing!
>She wants to to drive to the leash first before jumping up >
You can isolate it from agility at first: in the house or anywhere she likes to jump in your arms, you can have the leash present on the floor. Then have her jump in your arms, give her a treat, then either put her down to go to the leash or put the leash on when you are holding her (then more cookies of course š ) Then it can be chained: jump into arms, then to the leash immediately, then cookies. Then extend the distance, add obstacles, and so on š I think if she realizes that jumping into your arms is basically an Uber that gets the leash and cookies faster, she will be very happy to jump into your arms š
It was interesting to see her reaction to Dean wearing the hat in the video! She got over it pretty quickly because she was able to go over and assess that it was no big deal – so the rest of it went really well! You can enlist friends and family to appear at different parts of the course, especially after the final jump.
>Bit of Lift critique on my poor handling for 12-13 >
That is a good freestyle moment š At 1:09, you were facing the jump she took so the verbal did not override it. You did keep moving but the change in body language and verbal indicated that it was not quite right. So go full-on freestyle mode so that she thinks it was entirely correct (because she was :)) Any indication that it is a āfixā makes it too hard to regulate arousal when you are also challenging her with environmental distractions we donāt want the rehearsal of jumping up.
>Kaladin did Jpg Popout #3 with me running closer in ā got a bit more extensionā¦I think ā unfortunately I either didntā start the video or my older phone succumbed to gremlins. >
Yay for more extension, boo for not getting it on video!
>(old one mostly works except for not having enough space and being out of support as of a few months ago),>
It seems like there is a magical spell on phones that the issues begin when they go out of support LOL
>itās stressing me out to compare phone plans & trade in offers even though I already know I want a newer Samsung Galaxy. >
Thanks to accidentally smashing my phone in a truck stop parking lot at 10pm on a Sunday night heading home from the US Open, I have the newest Samsung Galaxy and I can highly recommend it! The camera is awesome š and they gave me full trade in for my older smashed phone so the new one didnāt cost me anything.
>And we are debating getting Fiber to replace overpriced Xfinity/comcast. I>
I got fiber and it has been life changing!
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
You and Rex ran this really well!>Knocked bar at 5. Did a retry of the sequence with success. >
The wrap cues were a little late at :13 – you were moving to the wing for longer than you needed to, and then you can move forward as soon as he is past you (do the blind at some point after you move forward). Staying there kept you in his way when landing so he dropped his feet on the bar. He kept it up on the 2nd run, but you can still trust his commitment and move forward as soon as he passes you (but maintain connection by looking back behind you to guarantee commitment š )
Some small details:
Adding in calling him before he goes into tunnels when there is a turn after it, like at :15 and :35. You were calling after he was in the tunnel, which delays the response because he canāt really hear the cue and canāt see the handling cue. So doing all of that before he enters (when he is about 2 meters before entering) will get nice tight turns on the tunnel exits.>Because I cannot move too far away as he is weaving, I stayed to the right of 10 with a push to backside at 11.>
That worked well to get the 11 backside! You donāt need to do the blind on 11, you can do a RC on the landing side to show the line to 12. The bar was down there at :28 but he might have dropped it due to your position between. The uprights if he had to jump. And a rear cross here wouldnāt put you far behind on the next line (which looked really strong!)
Another option for the line after the weaves is to keep him on your left and do a threadle slice at 11. That is a strong skill for you and Rexx and can put you way ahead for the next line.
Wrapping to the right on 18 definitely set up a lot of speed to 19-20. For him, since he turns really well, you can stay more on the landing side of the 18 jump which shortens the yardage from 17 and still gets a great turn. You were on the takeoff side at :39, which adds yardage and shapes the turn – I donāt think he needs the turn shaped there so you can stay a little more on the landing side of 18 (many dogs struggle to make that turn so they would need the handler to be on takeoff side).
Great job here!
Tracy
Hi!
>She ran last and there was a long distance from the last jump to the leash so we were running for about 30ft with her jacked up from the run and were almost to the leash when the bar setter popped out of their chair in front of us and maybe 5ft off our line and sprinted past us to go set jumps to the next height. >
I can see that would be hard. And it is a hard thing to recreate at home other than convincing Dean to suddenly walk across the yard then eventually run across the yard. If you have access to a class or a couple of group ring rentals, maybe you can get other people involved as over-helpy ring crew?
>it would have been hard for me to scoop up Lift, spin Kaladin out of the way and drop-kick the screaming thing all at the same time. I managed the first 2 as I was hustling to the other side of the street to get further away.>
OMG that sounds far more startling than any of us want to encounter!!
Looking at Kaladinās pop outs:
>Option 3 (wrap then slice) ended up the fastest even when I tighted up the line 2 to 3. >
Yes, both lines looked good and the wrap-to-slice was definitely faster. Good to know!!
>Then did popout 3 with 2 options for 12-14 >
For this pop out, you can drive closer to the line at 1:16-1:20 & 1:40-1:46. By staying lateral where there is no place to go, you decelerate and he reads that and adds collection strides. So it would be interesting to see if there is a time difference if you drive closer to the wings of the jumps there so you are cueing extension.
>and interestingly the BC to an inside wrap was a bit faster for him.>
Shorter distance for the win? And also it will be even faster if you are a bit further across the bar for the jump before it – you were blocking his line a little on the way to the wrap so that added a little yardage there. Subtle differences but totally worth it because it all adds up on bigger courses.
Great job!!
TracyGood morning!
>I need to learn about and try the cookie-free patterns and experiment with the ready-set-go-start. >
It is free with this class, here are instructions for accessing it:
How To Register For Your FREE Access To The Agility Launch Sequence Webinar!
>This is where you can also give him the full length of the toy, especially at the start, to let him chase it and engage with it.
I was so proud that I brought a really-long toy! š Yes ā if I remember and get coordinated, I can try leaving him a much longer piece of the toy to play chase with! Pretty sure he will still bite it close to my hands>He might still want the part closer to your hands (dogs are weird like that š) but you’ll be more upright so there is less pressure and also it makes it easier to move the toy away from him to elicit tugging.
>When is the next FEO planned?
Iām not 100% sure when it will be. Possibly early October ā probably not before then, unfortunately.>Great! Gives us plenty of time!
>I like this. I think Skizzle is making good progression with theseā¦just need to work towards that eventual understanding that rewards are outside the ring at the end. >
Yes, this is probably the most important part of transitioning to competition – we can start it at home for sure. Are there any training opportunities locally you can take him to, to help him learn about new locations?
>Fortunately, I think he really enjoys the agility game, so the work itself is reinforcing. >
Yes – that is the ultimate goal: agility itself is reinforcing so the cues to do agility are super fun! That helps fade the food & toys out of the ring.
>Iāve also been thinking that I need to train the leash off ā and tugging the leash after itās picked up to exit.>
The leash off game is super fun and easy to train. Tugging on the leash at the end of the run might be more about how he is feeling: he might be ready for a food reward or decompression at that point and not want to tug. He will let you know!
Tracy
Hi!
>Todays video is fusion as In Synch didnt manage to focus in this session she was just driving and not listening at all. >
Fusion was also really ramped up at the beginning! There is a lot of barking in the background and maybe that is why In Synch had trouble processing the cues? You can break things down so they are simpler to see if it is environmental distractions drawing bandwidth away from her ability to follow cues.
Try not to turn towards her to get her to come in on jumps 2 and 3 (:07 – :11, :31-:33), that delays you from running forward to the next line and giving the next turn cue. You ran forwards more on the last rep and that made for a smoother line.
Also, remember that running backwards reads the same as running forwards to dogs, so they tend to stay on the line in extension. That is what she kept going in extension at :33 – you were rotated but moving backwards. When you were running forward on the last run, you were much more easily able to get the threadle without rotating or yelling at her.
Let her see you rotate into the FC before she goes into the tunnel at :16 (at least 2 meters before she enters the tunnel) and same timing for the verbal cue there. She didnāt know she was supposed to turn and didnāt see connection or motion, so things came off the rails.
You had more decel at :42 and I think you had a verbal before she went into the tunnel (hard to hear). That got a better turn plus you had better connection when she exited, so she saw the line better at :45. The last rep was the best where you definitely had the verbal and rotation going while she was still 2 meters away from the entry – nice timing there!!!
Great job!
Tracy
Hi!
Poor Casper! I am glad the nail is the only thing broken. I am sure it will heal quickly.
And thank you for the āhors de combatā phrase! I have never heard it before but it most certainly fits life with whippets who are frequently showing up with some new wound earned when the wind blows extra hard or they do something ridiculous š
Enzo stepped in beautifully. The threadle on jump 3 looked great and was VERY independent!
The teeter was indeed a bit weird for him. Maybe you were too quiet, or he saw you looking ahead, so he questioned if he was correct to be there? Definitely not his normal teeter.
The threadle before the a-frame looked great and so did the line to the weaves.
You can send to the 9 tunnel from the weave exit so you donāt go past 10 at all, making it even easier to get the threadle on takeoff side of 10 (which worked great and put you in a good spot for 12-13). You worked kinda hard to get there and I don’t think you need to do anything more than hang back on the send to the tunnel.
To get the threadle wrap at 13 – turning him before he took off for 12 helped a lot! You donāt need to rotate towards him as much: You can turn him on 12 and turn parallel to the intended line to the threadle wrap, then flick him away. That will get you facing the next direction (RDW!) even sooner. These threadle wraps are happening before the dog walk a LOT lately and the earlier you can face the correct direction, the faster you can get across the field and support the DW exit so he gets more than a toe nail in š
To tighten up the line on the serp on 18 at :53 – you can open up your shoulders to face the jump with the trailing arm (left arm here) hanging back to see if you can keep moving to 19 so he can adjust his takeoff to be turning over 18. You stayed at 18 til he took off straight towards you so he landed long and had to adjust on the flat after landing. Ideally you would be past 18 (but showing serp cues) as he is adjusting to turn to 19 before takeoff.
And donāt forget 21-22 at the end š
Great job here!
Tracy
Hi!
>Maybe the course is too high level for what I actually need & want.>
You can take what sounds good and will work for you, and don’t do the things that don’t suit your needs. There might be good stuff!
>I was hoping there might be something in the course that would help me address his feelings about waiting his turn.>
Hopefully! I don’t know anything about the course but you can ask the instructor and see what she says.
Found the videos! You can see the general idea and there is some hilarity along the way because… Nacho. LOL!
I have always found it easier to teach herding dogs and some sporting breeds to be calm on a station, because there is some genetic wiring in place for that. Teaching a Papillon or whippety creature to mind their own business and stay on a station? Well that was harder for me LOL
>If he is angry, he wonāt eat, but maybe I can ease him into it. Maybe I can approach this whole thing differently.>
The goal is not not have him be angry… reframe that as anxiety. It kicks his nervous system into a different state (fight or flight) and suppresses the ability to eat. We want him to eat, not only so we can use it as a reward, but also because it helps us understand what his nervous system is doing.
>He gets crated with Bazinga now if he comes to spectate a trial and that keeps him happy. He fusses when I take her out to run and he has a very loud bark for such a tiny guy.>
You can work the games with bringing Bazinga into another room (out of site) eventually, and he can hang out with the Manners Minder as social support. A note about the Manners Minder – tape it closed if you are going to leave it with a dog, so they can’t open it and eat all the treats. Ask me how I know š
Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Good morning! This is really exciting!!
The environment definitely looks different than anywhere heād been asked to do agility. He did great! And good for you for getting so much on video.
>Enjoy one of Arizonaās āruggedā trial sites. >
Love it! That is what agility was like when I started, back before in the Stone Ages LOL!!
>Fortunately, the cows cleared out of the adjacent field before the start.>
OMG that would have been a challenging distraction LOL!
Patterns and tricks – he was definitely into the rewards: super motivating to help overcome the challenges of the environment! And there were good challenges too: wide open spaces, people & dogs in the area, and a dog barking in the background. He was very quick to engage here, which is fantastic because the environment is definitely hard.
>I left my treats on a table, but was a little worried he may not engage with me with the toy because we had just had the treats. Fortunately, he was able to engage with me pretty well.>
SUPER! He was really into the toy and that as a HARD environment under the tent with all those people around, the ring nearby, etc. Remember to keep the toy low and not moving away as fast, so he can grab it – you can hold one end of it rather than the middle, giving him full access to it.
Looking at the run: look at him recognizing the agility in this brand new environment! YEAH!!! It is more common to see young dogs running by stuff in these early stages, but he was great with finding lines, playing with the toy: what a fantastic first experience!
This is where you can also give him the full length of the toy, especially at the start, to let him chase it and engage with it. He did great with the hand touches at the start line! The spin cues were a little quick and right next to the jump, so he didnāt really process them – that will get easier as he gets more experienced.
>I forgot to NOT ask for a start-line stay (even after our pre-planning and even after he broke the first one).>
He actually held the stay for a while – it took a long time (in dog years) to get rid of the leash. 15 seconds is a long time, he was probably wondering what was going on LOL He is not used to that, so at home you can bring him in on leash, take it off, and just toss it off to the side.
>I can see he was a little distracted at the start line ā I should maybe aim for taking 2 deep breaths to give him time to check things out and then check in with meā¦instead of rushing him.>
You can also experiment with what works best: it can be asking for the cookie-free patterns with hand touches, or a ready-set-go start (no stay) or a short stay. Try different things and see what works best!
>At 1:00, I had planned to have him wrap that jump before the tunnel. My handling wasnāt great for that (plus, why was I making it anything mildly complicated?) ā Skizzle took the backside instead.>
He was definitely on the parallel path to the backside there, so he took it and you kept going: perfect š
>Would love to hear your feedback and thoughts for planning for the next FEO run based on this one.>
When is the next FEO planned?
I think doing what you did outside the ring should happen again, you had a lot of success there.
And we can play with different elements as you move to the start line: leash off, engagement on game, cookie-free patterns, ready-set-go starts, etc. Have you had a chance to look at the Launch webinar? There are some games in there we can add in and see what he likes š And a few more reps of doing the FEO in the ājust like homeā mode with the visible toy is good – and at home you can be doing the āempty handsā mode with the reward in your pocket while separately working on the remote reinforcement games.
Great job!!
Tracy
