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He was definitely clever! And being able to turn away at a distance will be really helpful in the future 🙂
T
Hi!
Thanks for the video! Her stay looks good even with the little blooper on the ‘nice’ word 🙂
One thing to add is walking away from her forward rather than backing away – I think the first early release was when you turned to walk forward so she came with you. She caught herself and put herself back in the sit on the last one, good girl! You can say the praise quietly but more drawn out (‘niiiiiiice’) so it doesn’t sound fast – the longer words can often help with the stay because they are not exciting at all LOL!!
But overall she is doing GREAT with her stays! Keep up the good work here!
Tracy
Hi!
The new place is really nice! And he has a TON of good value for his mat!!!
For the rear crosses, you were both starting pretty close the prop so there was not enough time for you to get to the other side. Ideally, he would need to see you fully on the new side before he hits the prop, so he can adjust his striding.
You can start with the prop about 15 feet away and as soon as he starts moving towards it, you can be moving to the new side. That should help him see it sooner.
He read the blinds really well! You can make the new side visible sooner by moving away before he finishes his treat. You were waiting for him to tart moving back to you, but that meant the blind was late. So as he is heading to the cookie, you can be running the other way so you have plenty of time and room to get the blind in. That last rep was very timely ad he knew exactly where to be 🙂 Great job!!!
Tracy
Hi!
>I do know I need a sitting, down stay and also standing stay for Rally. Would you use this method for teaching those too?>
Yes – but to help clarify the different positions, I would cue them first so he knows what you are looking for (sit, stand, or down).
>We passed our Star puppy test and novice trick title Thursday night so yesterday was a rest day. >
Yay! Congrats!!!
>Today we did a rental at another facility that he has been too but hasn’t been in weeks. It was challenging. >
Overall, he did well!
> We started with the pattern game
Pattern games were definitely a good starting point, maybe outside the ring before going into the ring? You can also up the value of the treat or something really new and exciting in a new place. That will help with the recall too – amazing treats that he only gets in new places 🙂
It only took him about 2 minutes to be able to engage, but then you can end the session before it goes too long.
The tug was very exciting in the new location! He did a GREAT job ignoring it to move to the barrel! And he did a fabulous job on the barrel wrap, decel, drive to toy: impressive!!!! The decel/pivot part was especially great because he could easily have just gone to the toy. What a good pup!!!
He did a great job with his tunnel! He was a little obsessed to making the reward in your hand obvious so he could line up with you was great.
>I also learned smells are more interesting than our recall. Many things to work on and this was harder for him.>
I think he was lovely here! And you can also do shorter sessions (2 oe 3 reps total) then take a break. And those reps can have his favorite toy or mind-blowing treats 🙂
Great job!
Tracy
Hi!
>I edited this down into two as we had a few minutes of “out of control tunnel zoomies”>
Ha! She was definitely fire for the tunnels here! And she was enjoying scampering around with her toy LOL
Both videos looked really strong. The only thing she didn’t seem to love was being moved by her collar – that ight be why she didn’t come back to you that fast between each rep. You can try lining her up with a treat in the spot you want to start from, rather than moving her by the collar.
Have you decided what you want your tunnel threadle verbal to be? She is definitely ready for you to add the verbal – ‘tunnel’ will be the ‘on your line’ tunnel entry and your tunnel threadle verbal will be the ‘come in to the off the line tunnel entry’ verbal.
Great job!
Tracy
Hi!
The serp/threadle foundation is going really well! She got faster and faster a she figured out the game – and had strong touches!
She was also really funny – she was asking if she could just go directly to the cookies on some of the reps LOL! What can help that is if you let her see you shift your gaze from her face to your hand – that will also help her shift her gaze to the hand 🙂
Great job here! You can add in a toy reward and try to get the toy to the ground!
Tracy
Hi!
>It didn’t occur to me until this Stay Game that I am also using OK for drive to handler- I’m rewarding her at my side. Do I need to use Break instead for the agility context or anytime I have her in a stay and she is driving towards me, which could be in a crate? >
Nope! Your general release word can be OK for both.
> I guess 2 questions- should I say a different word like Break or do I even need to release her from the crate?>
If OK is your release word, I don’t think you need to add break because it will mean the same thing 🙂 About releasing from the crate: if she is playing a crate game, then yes you probably want to release her. I also release from the crate in the car but I am lazy and don’t release from the crate at home 🙂
> I added in duration, distance & used the quiet praise word Nice – she broke on “Nice”. She thought it was nice too & deserved to get paid >
Ha! That made me chuckle 🙂 She probably figured that the first word was the release so it was a good moment of teaching her that there might be different words. How did she do on the next rep with it? If she failed again then you can dial it back to a quieter nice or even just a smile to see how she does.
>When I do distance (in a real space lol) should I always maintain eye contact? So like a for real start line stay, always maintain eye contact when I lead out?>
Yes to maintaining eye contact at this baby level of stays so you can see what she is doing 🙂 Eventually you might not need to maintain eye contact as you lead out – the goal is that you can lead out, connect, praise, then release.
The video is a scent foundation game – It was cool!!!! She is a smart! But let me know if there is a stay game too 🙂
Tracy
Hi! Sounds like the trip is really fun!!
>I’d love to see some of the work you’re doing with your mal mix. Is there a place you are sharing anything of that training?>
I am keeping him a bit close to the vest for now, because his parents are very famous (in the flyball world) and people make stupid comments about Mal mixes (in both the agility and flyball worlds LOL!). You’ll see him peppered in a bit here in MaxPup 1. I can add more videos of him to the next set of classes.
He is just about debuting in flyball and maybe an agility debut this summer. Took the winter off of agility training because of being pressured to prioritize flyball in the hopes of being on the “A” team for the North American nationals in September. He is showing times and precision that are putting him amongst the fastest in the country and he isn’t even knowing that it is a race yet, so now my mission is to NOT screw it up hahahahaha>I did snag a quick 30 minute with Hana when we got to Run Wild. I let her know we were just doing baby stuff but wanted him to get to play on artificial turf and in a new place. >
Excellent! And super fun to see Hana doing so well in competing and instructing – when I first met her a few years ago, she was a newbie.
>He was super focused and did great. >
Of course! That is how he rolls! Good boy!
>Mostly wing wrap stuff since I told her we’d been doing barrel wraps and some tunnel stuff. I think I remember the straight line wrap work from Rip’s MaxPup era so suspect we’ll be seeing this again.>
He was so good! Generalizing the wraps to the Galican wings and all that counermotion and tunneling – fabulous! I admit to laughing on the second rep where you went wing to the tunnel – and he took off like there were flames shooting out of his feet. 🔥 It was like he was saying “I UNDERSTAND THE ASSIGNMENT LET’S GOOOOO!” It made you have to hustle and hustle MORE on the next rep when he accelerated even more what a good boy!!!!!! So fun 🙂
Great job here! Keep me posted on your adventures!
Tracy
Hi! Oops, I almost missed these! This session went well too!
He had a bar on the soft turn at :09, I think you swung your arm forward which broke connection so he was trying to see what you wanted.
In the other discussion (below), I mentioned that directed the brake arms towards him (and not towards the jump) gets the best turn. At :12 your brake arms were directed toward the jump, so his turn was good not great 🙂 He had great turns in the next session.
Looking at the threadle wrap – this is a strong skill for him! At 1:29 you were on time, already giving the cues when he exited the tunnel. Very nice! Add a touch of decel and you will have a perfect turn.
At 2:49 you had good timing and you cleared the line AND you had decel: that was my favorite threadle wrap turn for him! YAY!!!
He had 2 front side oopsies, but they were handling bloopers not Scotch bloopers 🙂
At 1:13 you were a little late with the cues (he was already taking off for the front side) and at 2:35 your timing was really good but you were blocking his line, so he couldn’t get in between you and the jump for the backside.The combo of timing/line/decel at 2:49 was definitely the winner!
Great job here!
Tracy
Hi! Lots of great work here and small tweaks to tighten up the spots that can be a little tighter. But once again, he was able to read distance work and also turn nice and tight close to you. Super!
On the first sequence with the threadle wrap on the backside: you can add in a little decel on those! You were moving forward the whole time so while he did read them at :21 and :54, he was a little wide over the bar. You can sprinkle in a tiny bit of decel as he is catching up to you – then move forward again as soon as he turns his head away to the jump.
You were using a rear cross turn away over 3 to get you nicely to position on the threadle wrap and backside pushes: the tightest reps (like at 2:23) on those were when you showed him both hands and decelerated to flip him away. If you were moving forward to giving th info late, he was wide. So as he exits the tunnel, decel and let him see your hands start the turn away cues. We have games for turn away and threadle wraps coming up soon!
FC on the landing side of the backside sequence:
The Front crosses were really good!!! The first one was good. The second one at 2:27 had you facing him for too long, so he was not sure where to go and took the bar.But the brake arm at 3:12 was GORGEOUS plus you were fully rotated, LOVELY turn! Super nice!!!!!
3rd sequence: very nice wrap at 4:10 – the brake arm was directed back to him and he saw it clearly, turning beautifully.
At 4:13 he jumped straight (bar down) because the brake arm was directed forward to the jump and he didn’t see it. Compare that to 4:59 when you were very clearly directing the brake arm to him and he had a lovely turn! Yay! So definitely directing the brake arms back to him make a huge difference.Great job here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Good morning! It looks like your trip is off to a great start!!
>Here are some clips from our runs today (he is loving Peyton and Gracie Hoffman’s courses). >
I am liking the smooooooth flowing big lines!! So fun for a dog like him who understands distance.
Really interesting about using the OA on the dog walk approach and getting the extra stride! And it definitely got his attention on the teeter LOL!
On the handling:
* :53 he was looking at the off course tunnel, I would add a soft brake there
* You can do a threadle wrap at 1:05 to tighten that line – doing the BC to the circle wrap worked but didn’t give you enough time to clear his line and get a tight turn on the backside.
You were adding the soft brake in and it worked best when he saw it nice and early, ideally you can start showing it to him as he is n the air over the previous jump . At 1:22 it was late (you started it jut as he was gathering for takeoff. Compare to 1:43 where he saw it as he was landing and it set up a great turn!!
>my decel at the end that led to a dropped bar on the last jump.>
He was so mad! LOL!!!
Great job here!
Tracy
Hi!
>Gromit is funny, at trials he’s very amped and spicy but in training he’s only like that maybe half the time. Keeping his turns short does help and often watching one of the others practice increases his motivation. >
That might be partially that the trial environments amps him up, and partially that he puts down an amped up first run in training but then dials it back to conserve energy when he realizes there are more runs happening in that session. You can treat training like a trial: he gets one run then someone else gets a turn 🙂 That way you can practice at true Gromit speed!
>At trials he often gets so amped that he shoots out ahead and then can’t turn.
At the trial I tried to use the break arm a few times but I think I need more practice with it because he pretty much ignored me. >It might be that it was either visible too late, or the brake arm was directed forward to the jump and not enough back to him (and paired with deceleration). The timing for a dog with his speed and stride is generally he sees the turn cues starting at takeoff to the previous jump. If he sees them starting at landing or after landing, he won’t have time to adjust. If you have video, feel free to post it and we can figure out why he didn’t respond to the arms.
>One time this week I practiced the break arm with Carmen and she did really well with it and made nice tight fast turns. I’ll get back to video this weekend.>
Perfect! Looking forward to the video!
>Oh, and I’ve entered Gromit in a UKI trial beginning of April. I’ve run UKI a few times with my girl Ginger, but not Gromit. He’ll be in beginner since when I first signed him up a few years ago that’s what he was in. I’m hoping he’ll like it.>
I think he will love the fast, flowing lines 🙂
Have fun!
TracyGood morning!
>Partway through where there are a couple extra treat tosses and a hand touch, someone opened the door and came in the building and I wanted to see if Aelfraed could keep working (normally he gets distracted and wants to see who’s there), so that was good too!>
Yes, it is hard to ignore someone entering a quiet environment. He did a great job!
The tandem turns looked great! Only one small blooper when you changed sides but I think you were not as clear or early with the cue as you were on all the other reps. It sounds like you are calling his name as you start the tandems – since he is at almost 100% success, I think you can switch to your threadle wrap verbal. It can still be a tandem turn but you can also mix in a true threadle wrap!
And when that goes well, you can also add more distance in between the wings to get this with more and more speed 🙂
Great job working the decel wraps!!! He had a question on the first rep but then at :19, he was able to pass your decel to commit in collection. SUPER! And your reward placement was spot on. Yay!
At :46 on the new side, he turned the ‘wrong’ way – that was possibly because he had been rewarded for a bunch of left wraps but also it looks like you stepped in and had pressure to the jump with your feet (the decel was a little late), with your right foot stepping across to the RC line. It was goof to reward it anyway! On the other reps, the decel was clear and distinct from the feet rotating, and he had no questions.
Nice work here!
Tracy
Good morning!
>Then…. As I started actually doing this “out” is my drop the toy cue. And “get” man so many “get”>
Other verbals options can be something like “shift” (which of course will sound like shit when yelling which is HILARIOUS) or “away” which is more family friendly 🙂
He had a little trouble shifting to his left lead on the first couple of ‘get out’ reps which is why he was moving away but not exactly taking the jump. I was going to suggest placing the reward and that is exactly what you did – yay! That totally helped, and then he was able to do it without the lure. Super!!!
With the placed reward, be sure to also do the balance reps of going straight, so he is learning the cue and not just going to the reward.
>Or I physically helped lol.>
Yes, there was a bit of turning your feet to the jump which helped him take it but didn’t really show him the lead shift. So be sure to maintain the integrity of the cue: at 3:38 & 4:03 you were not using an arm – he saw connection and you moving to face the jump so I think he got it based on what had just been rewarded and that you were not moving (facing the jump) so it was not a lead change anymore. Put that line on the ground so you are always the same with the lower body 🙂
Nice work here!
Tracy
Good morning!
She did really well with both the lap turn and tandem turn in the first video! Yes, she was vocal on the lap turns when you cued her to drive to you – but that might just be because there is an arousal shift of having to drive to you with you facing her.
When you cued the down at :14 – did she make contact with your leg, or was it because she was barking? If it was just barking, usually that is a sign of needing more connection in that moment (especially when things are exciting early in the session) so you can keep going and connect more. If she made contact with your leg, you can make it more of a ‘game over’ moment: yes, you can cue the down to stop the action, but then you can happily leave the game and take out another dog to play with. That is a bigger response cost for contact with your flesh – a down is a stop in the action for a BC but not being able to continue the work is a bigger “oops, I guess I shouldn’t bite the momma” moment that is delivered happily.The lap turns were pretty perfect, my only suggestion is when you start cueing her to come to the lap turn hand, you can also plant your feet together as she is approaching the hand – that way the leg movement will be a little later (when she get closer to you). She almost went to the wrong side of the wing a couple of times because the leg movement was a little early.
Tandems went great, pretty perfect! So with the tandems and also the lap turns, you can add more distance between the wings to get even more speed 🙂
Wind in your hair went really well! On the first couple of reps, I think you were pressuring in towards the jump so she almost pushed away to the backside. But then on the rest of the reps, you stayed on your line and she knew exactly where to be. The decel looked really good and her commitment was lovely, resulting in beautiful turns! And you were able to get ahead of her on the exit because she was committing really well.
>I’m not sure if I’m doing the end part correctly though?>
You had great connection on the exit and that really helped her see the new line. What might have made you think it was not quite correct was you did a two different handling moves: a spin (front to blind) on the exits at the beginning on the left turn wraps. On the other side you did a regular blind (no front, just blind) on the right turn wraps. Both went great! You can also do some regular front cross exits 🙂 All of those are used in this scenario.
Great job!
Tracy
