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Hi!
>We are only entered in 1 class this weekend on Saturday. Hopefully it will be a good course to try starting at the startline & doing some more obstacles before bringing the toy out.>
Keep me posted!
>There are a bunch of young-dog friendly USDAA trials in Florida over the winter, and starters jumpers is jumps & tunnels only. And the runs are cheap! LOL!! Something to consider 🙂 I will be in FL over the winter so I will go with you if there is one that fits the calendar. > OOOOOOOO! I would LOVE that if we could find one!!! Do you have any suggested dates/trials?>
I will gather a list!
>Oh boy, she sure knew right where to go at the end of the sequence! LOL I will need to do a contrast session where we turn back into the course and not go directly to the bowl.>
Ha! Yes! We want her to hear a lot of the marker to go get it when she is moving away from it and heading back to the course so she doesn’t assume that heading towards the exit means she is definitely going towards the exit 🙂 Lots of courses loop back around after passing the exit so it is good to practice that too. So you can even do a FC on the last jump to turn her back down the line to the tunnel- then send her back through the tunnel before marking that it was time for the rear 🙂
The sequence went well – fast and fun!!!
Only one suggestion: On the very first rep, you can lead out more to the tunnel to set the line to the tunnel. You got caught behind the wing of 1 a bit which got her curving towards you, so the line to the tunnel was hard for her to read. She got it nicely on the other reps because she saw the sequence and because you were giving her a bit of a ‘get out’ arm too.
Great job here! I am looking forward to hearing how tomorrow goes!
Tracy
Hi!
>I am so glad that I had all the games fresh in my mind because I needed pattern games and volume dial for Kaladin waiting to go into Gamblers finals. For some reason they thought it was a good idea to lower the score sheets in a bucket banging down the concrete wall from the scoring area in the stands and then have someone run them to the office to do the cummulative scoring. Not sure why the cummulatives scorer couldn’t have sat up by the scoring table or used a Google Sheet but it is what it is. Kaladin thought the martians were invading the first time he first saw the bucket being lowered and then the racket that it made. Luckily I still had lots of treats so I had him doing pattern games on the concrete steps behind the podium since tossing tiny brown treats on dirt can be a bit too hard when the bucket aliens are about to attack you. I got him mostly back but he was still over-aroused going into the ring and he actually jumped up and pushed off my belly pretty hard before I cued it at the start. I asked him for another one and then we just ran. I still wonder if part of the reason why he popped his weave poles (in the opening since I knew the gamble was an exercise in futility) was a bit of a holdover of him still getting over the craziness at the startline.>>
Wow, good for you for using the games to help him out!!! That method of sending the scores is really unexpected, to say the least! And yes, it is entirely possible that the weave issue was a holdover. He regulated really well but a small error like a weave pop can be caused by that.
>And – I have a Galican Dogwalk with a brace and I use it. It’s not the Intercan line they have at the US Open – I think it’s their Lite line. I didn’t notice that the DWs didn’t have a brace at the Open until after the issues started happenign. (and Kaladin never ran on contacts in the covered arena because we scratched Natl Rnd 2).>
Yes, there was a LOT of movement on those dog walk planks, that was part of the problem (but not the whole problem). So many details combined to create a pretty big issue.
>Other stuff from the webinar – I think I’ll add the swing behind running start to Lift’s toolbox in a few weeks and see what she thinks. >
This is a fun one, I think she will like it!
>Also wondering if another option is to take the leash off, let her shake, move towards the line, ask her to push her collar into my hand, say ready and take off. Might not work if she’s too aroused and bouncing, but offering her collar is pretty strong and there’s no stay involved (set position or her choice)>
If she likes the collar part, then yes! Also does she know how to line up between your feet or we’ve your legs? That is the entirely the opposite of leaping up and might be really helpful to have in the tool box!
> We’ll also work on the offered stay which will be a new skill since I don’t currently have a “stay” cue for my dogs -it’s the position not an additional stay cue.>
I will try to get how I trained it on video – it is kind of like the game Freeze Dance if you ever played that 🙂
>I also had an interesting FB Msgr chat with the gal who has Lift’s brother – the other little one. He’s also very boingy and is the one that will jump up and try to bite her at times. Turns out he’s very similar to Lift in thinking that toys are great fun outside the context of agility but can’t handle the arousal of them while doing his agility work. >
I think it is great to talk to littermate owners and compare notes! So helpful to discuss similarities!
>When I met him at the end of August at the Canandian Open he was a tugging fiend even with that much excitement around, but apparently that doesn’t transfer to his agility job right now. The other male litter mate is with Bev Benson in Winnipeg. She’s not training him for agility now but he’s also incredibly boingy by nature. So it’s got to be some kind of a genetic component in there (or genetics plus early environment flipping that switch on or something like that).>
Probably all of the above: genetics plus environment. Do either/ both of the parents do it? It is a frustration behavior in general, so we can really focus on frustration reduction to survive adolescence 🙂 and help her out 🙂
Tracy
Hi!
The sequencing is looking good and big tunnel sends are always good work for UKI! And your connection was clear which is really helpful.>, my plan going forward is to get off the line quickly so I will be dropping or short tossing to the leash runner. >
Perfect! And as you are leading out be super connected and you can even try a bit of the cartoon silliness or a quiet ready-set game to keep him pumped up on there start line. When you are too quiet and not connected, he loses energy and was starting to scratch a bit early in the session.
>He’s got the go tunnel down fairly well, it worked out well in the 1st set. Should I have used the go also at the tunnel exit, it might have helped with his checking in with me.>
Tunnel sends are looking really good! And yes, if you want him t continue on a big line afterwards you can totally use a big GO cue as well as a jump cue.
Thinking ahead to the trial, you can talk to him more on course in general: his name, obstacle cues, directionals – that can all be very engaging and help cut through the distractions of the trial environment.
>2nd set, I can see that the verbal said tunnel, but my body said jump at the 1.42 mark.>
Yes that was definitely a conflicting indicator moment: voice said tunnel but body said jump 🙂 so it was a good place to reward or keep going. When you are trialing, you can really exaggerate the cues to support each line.
>Whole session is an example of less arousal = less speed. Now I’ve got to read the YD stuff and see what arousals effect is on learning – is he learning more when he’s thinking clearer? >
YD is not about arousal and learning, it is more about arousal and performance. So the more optimal the arousal is, the better the performance will be 🙂 The trick is to find that optimal sweet spot – and that is usually higher arousal than people think it is. That is what more connection on the start line, getting off the line fast, more verbals, etc – that can all be more arousing, which will increase performance! And using the pattern games and snuffle mats, etc. is to help him regulate all that arousal.
Nice work here! Let me know how it goes this weekend!
Tracy
Good morning!
Looking at the prop game:
>But then I started questioning if I should reward it or not because the point isn’t so much the foot target as it is the staying on his line, right? So I just rewarded the effort, but let me know how I should be doing this so I can do it right next time!>
Yes, because this becomes an extension line (over a jump eventually) you will see different mechanics in his movement. He made a great adjustment in mechanics to stay on his line and also go fast. So you won’t see the foot smacks we see on the other games (because those are about turns). And you were 100% correct to keep rewarding his commitment to the line, because that is the goal 🙂 Yay!
So the next steps of this game are to add more distance laterally away from him 🙂 And also, you can stay closer to him and start with him next to the cookie toss… so he drives ahead. That will build in nicely to the rear cross game which I think he is ready for too!
YouTube is hiding the next two videos from me (they are marked private). Let me know when they are relisted so we can figure out why he had trouble on the left side. Could have been brain-tired from the effort of being awesome on the right side! I am looking forward to seeing.
Great job!
TracyGood morning!
He is a barrel fanatic! Love it!!!
While I am thinking of it, you can start to generalize the behavior and make the barrel look different each time… but shoving stuff in it LOL!! Different color towels, for example, can make it look a little different each time just like how jump wings are different )Since he loves his barrels, you can add a little more distance away – the bowls stay next to you and the barrel moves away from you.
He is also ready for turn and burn with the barrel, which is serious fun but probably needs to be outdoors. So the first outdoor barrel session should have the bowls so he can recognize the game 🙂
Strike A Pose is indeed more about handler mechanics than dog behavior 🙂 If we get it right, they get it right LOL! I think the session went really well 🙂
He was coming in at a hard angle with the way you were turned here, so you can soften that a little bit by facing the camera and throwing the treat towards the camera. That way, he is coming in a bit straighter to the target hand. And he did totally sort out the right hand targeting, no problem at all!!! Yay!
>I switched to ‘get it’ instead of ‘yes’ partway through because he was chomping my fingers when I was holding multiple treats and that was the quickest way for me to not get chomped! >
The reward placement from your hand at :25 was spot on, drawing him in front of you to get the full in and out of the serp/threadle turns. If you were getting chomped because he was excited, you can present the hand like you did there and the gas he is turning to it, toss the treat in that direction of his travel (to where your feet aer pointing) so he continues moving past you.
Sounds like he did great in the new location! And I am sure he will learn to look for rats/friends 🙂 The Farmies can really do anything – super cool dogs!
Great job here!!!
Tracy
Good morning!
>It has been stupid cold (-7 windchill yesterday with gale force winds), but supposed to be 40 on the weekend, so I hope to be able to use the yard for the games that need room.>
40 degrees will feel like summer!!!
>> I got one of those 4’ tunnels for training, so I’m hoping that is ok so I can work in the basement on the tunnel exercises?>>
Totally yes! And you can emphasize attaching the verbal by holding him, saying it 4 or 5 times, then letting him drive through it. Separate the verbal from your motion so he can learn the verbal.
>> I’m going to I use the same ones that Dellin has:>>
These are great!
I am guessing you also have a GO verbal for straight line acceleration, and obstacle names?
Do you also have a ‘get out’ verbal for lead changes away to get on a parallel line (but not a rear cross, because handler and dog continue forward). We add the get out verbal here pretty soon.
>Swing – for rear cross (not using it with Judge yet) – I’ve really found this to be helpful for Dellin>
Because of the huge emphasis on layering on course lately, I have also added a rear cross into a layer cue! That way the dogs know to turn away and then get on a big line. Very very useful!
Stay warm!
Tracy
Hi!
Very cool to hear you use this a lot in your rehab work! It is one of my favorites too, for about 1000 reasons 🙂
She is very long LOL!!! A little more room would be good but I don’t think you need much more room for now. She definitely thought it was about keeping her back feet on the step – so maybe for now, the step is too tall? Since it is tall, it might be too salient so she might be thinking this is a rear foot target only game. So something to consider is a lower rear foot target for now, maybe an inch tall. She had a really strong last rep! But even then she really had to work stepping back AND stepping up, so perhaps we isolate it to just stepping back with something lower.
But don’t change anything til she has slept on it for a day or two so we can see how WLL (Whippety Latent Learning 😁🤣) kicks in. You can switch to a lower target if she starts the next session telling you she is still not sure of backing up to the taller target.
And she was not easily lured to get a back foot off the step LOL!!! So you can cue her to come off with a hand target if she will step forward to touch your hand.
>I also should have been quicker to scatter in some of her breaks.>
I thought you were good here! She was very engaged and trying to solve the puzzle, and the session was only 2.5 minutes. You can throw a toy at the end and let her run around at the end, as a nice balance for all of the highly focused body awareness work she did here!
Great job!
TracyGood morning! Everything is looking strong, so here are a couple of small tweaks and lots of next-step suggestions 🙂
Collection sandwich – he is reading everything really well! You can decel sooner – as soon as you do the blind, decel immediately so he can both decelerate and keep driving in to you even though you are not accelerating.
The only other thing to add in terms of mechanics is to reward him with his head lower, chin parallel to the ground and not lifting up for the treat. That way he can decelerate into his rear even better!
He is ready for you to add the next part: driving ahead (toy race!) after the pivot.
Bummer about stepping in dog poop at the end! LOL!
Backing up is going well too! He seems to have the concept of backing up away from the initial cookie. So now we add getting more steps 🙂 To jumpstart that and reward more steps of backing up – as he backs up from under your knees, toss the next cookie between his front feet (under him) so he backs up more to get it. Then after he gets it, place the next cookie between your feet to start the next reps. We will also be adding a ‘destination’ for backing up soon too!
Sideways sending on the prop looks really really great!!! The forward sends looked strong and so did the backwards sending. Super!!!! You can play tug after every couple of reps to fold in more excitement without losing the accuracy that the food brings.
He is ready for countermotion – using the sideways sending to start it, start close to the prop and send him – as soon as he is passing your knee to get to the prop, you will oh-so-slowly slide the other direction. I suggestion starting slowly because I only want him to notice the motion a little, and not be drawn to follow you til after he hits the prop.
When he is able to do it with you close and moving slowly, we will add more speed of you moving (close up to the prop) as well as more distance away from the prop no the send (but slowly again, because we don’t want to change too many variables at once).And extra special thanks to Nix for her supervision in these indoor sessions LOL!! She seemed please 🙂
Great job here! Safe travels to Vancouver and have a blast!!
Tracy
Good morning! I think Joplin enjoyed both the tunnel and the Manners Minder! This session went great!
The hardest part for the taller dogs is ducking down to get into the tunnel, especially as you added angles. She was really thinking about getting her head low, which is great!
When you aded speed on the 2nd session, she missed on the first one (didn’t lower her head) but the NO reward moment was great info for her – and she was fantastic on all the other reps. Turning away to the tunnel looked terrific too, she had no trouble with that.
Since she did so well here, the next step is to get the tunnel verbal going more independently (eventually to have massive tunnel sends without you needed to also run to the tunnel :))
You can use the same setup and hold her collar. Then while holding the collar, say tunnel 4 or 5 times – then let go so she goes to it without you moving. (Then reward of course)
Start nice and close for that and if she is having no trouble, you can move further and further away (always starting with you holding her so she can hear the verbal first without motion.
And yes, you can also start to add in a longer tunnel.
Great job!!
TracyOMG! I am excited that I get to meet you in a little more than 2 hours!!!!!!!!! It will be so fun!!!!
Tracy
Good morning! Lots of good work here and I don’t think he jumped up at you a single time on these! Yay!
Looking at the Decel – he had a little trouble decelerating at the beginning (but was great about ignoring the gun shots in the background!)
I think we can use compelling food and shorter distances to get him to love this game – when he is running in the bigger distances, he is really enjoying the run run run element. So since that arousal is overtaking the decel, I think using food and shorter distances really helped (like on the last couple of reps). You can keep the distances even shorter for now (easier to decel when he is not going as fast :)) and definitely add in the pivot: if he knows he has to turn to get the treat, he is more likely to set up the turn with decel. Then he can have a treat and some tugging 🙂Backwards sending – the right turns were definitely harder than the left turns on the backwards sending, so keep those nice and close to the prop now as he works out his mechanics. And both sides were a little harder when you added more distance. But he will probably sleep on it and latent learning will kick in 🙂 I bet in the next session you can add in a little more distance. And the countermotion can also be added in using sideways sends, which are easier 🙂
Remember to add in a quiet ready dance moment before each rep of the backwards sending, so he is ready for the send – that will help him look forward to the prop so he can then drive to it while you move away. You were doing it as a bit more of a loop, with the next cue coming pretty quickly after he got the reward, so he was not quite ready to look at and move to the prop.
>Also, for some reason when he is coming up from behind me on the right he wants to tuck into the middle.>
That was his harder side, and he kept getting it wrong, so I think he was guessing at a behavior that has a lot of value? The 2 Failure Rule will really help here – if he gets it wrong twice in the session, make it easier to build up the skill. We talk more about that this weekend!
On the parallel path – he is hitting it nicely! You don’t need to say yes and get it – the yes causes him to look at you. Yo can make just with ‘get it’ so he knows he was correct and to keep looking ahead. I think you can try the rear cross element of this game now!!
The forward focus game went well! He was more than happy to look at the cookie in the bowl 🙂 Easy peasy! And nice job adding in toy play.
You can add in a hand cue to indicate the forward focus on the easy moments of this too, to prep the cue for when the game gets really hard and the bowl is more visible on the other side of the cone. When it got harder you did have the hand cue, but he didn’t get to practice it with the easier stuff so he had a couple of questions. You will see on the video that he was flicking his eyeballs to the line without turning his head LOL!! Good boy!!!
At the very end he did a very distinct head turn which was fabulous!!
Great job here! Looking forward to seeing you soon!!
Tracy
Good morning!
There were good challenges!
I think trying to do this as remote reinforcement on the first one with the toy off to the side – harder handling plus RR might be a 2-for-1 that he was not quite ready for 🙂 His coping skill went something went sideway was to get the toy LOL!! So I usually only do remote reinforcement for easy sequencing at this stage.Looking at the sequence:
With a shorter lead out, jump 3 definitely works best as a serp to blind, so making a bigger deal of the connection to the landing spot really help him see that (and you can drop a toy on the landing side to reward him as you show the countermotion)The blind on the takeoff side worked well too – you can start it a stride sooner (when has has landed from 1 and looks at 2) but more importantly, show big exit line connection back to him so he can pick up the side change immediately.
>we had particular challenges with the jump before the tunnel (#7, I think?) , I think because it was kind of a push out for him to go get it and come back to the tunnel.>
Yes – the way it was set, you would need a soft turn cue (like a brake arm) on 5 to set a clearer line 6-7 but also possibly more of a push out to get 7.
Video 2 –
The BC at :29 was starting at take off which is a little late, so exit line connection will really help (showing the opposite arm across your body on your dog side hip to really open up connection). It is a tiny bit wide, bt he is reading it really well so we can tighten it up with earlier timing and exit line connection.You did the brake arm on 5 at :32 which really helped set the line (you don’t need to rate your feet to him on those) but yes, it is definitely a push back out to get the lead change to the next jump – it is even more obvious here with the nice line coming into it. I would use a ‘get out’ verbal and opposite arm to get that lead change.
Nice threadle on the backside after the tunnel at 1:16! But he didn’t know what the next line was, a little too much motion from you 🙂 Try not to talk to him if something goes wrong – get right back into handling. You were discussing it with him and so he was not sure what to do.
You had a little too much push forward at 1:29 on the threadle there but then got it really nicely – the last rep looked good there too! You don’t need to step him forward to the jump (the threadle cue does that) – the extra step caused the bar down because he didn’t realize it was a wrap til he was in the air. You can hold position until you see him look at the bar, the peel away to the next line.
>I was having a hard time getting in the right spot to negotiate the jump + pole.>
Yes, the pole is hard for the young dogs! You can do a bit of one jump rewarding with the jump next to the pole to get him comfy. And a little more exaggerated connection helps too – any time there is a big distraction in the environment, exaggerating the handling will really help 🙂
The disc class sounds fun! The engaged chill was adorable! He was not entirely sure he wanted the scritches at the beginning (looking away, yawning), so he offered up a paw to be petted. Cute! He was quite chill, actually! And I agree that the dos love disc but I worry about what they do to their bodies! EEK!!
Nice work here!
TracyGood morning!
>I’ve been struggling a bit with training on the days I have “big doggy class” in person, but we’ve been having a lot of fun just focusing on toy play and playing together in the yard, plus another walk in the neighborhood. We did some of the “get it – check in” game, he was great once he figured out the game was to refocus! >
It is depleting for us humans to do big dog class and also puppy training! Does he go to class too, to just hang out? That counts as training 🙂 And toy play, neighborhood walks, the pattern game… that is all training and also incredibly enriching. So you are getting it all done, which is really hard so click/treat to YOU!
Looking at the videos (and thanks to your mom for adding a little distraction!!)
He was totally on board with the prop game! Yay! I think the training and latent learning have kicked in.
Most of these reps were right turns and they looked super strong. So be sure to add in lots of left turns which looked a lot harder for him – for the left turns, you can start closer to the prop. And also make sure you are looking at him as you send (and not ahead to the prop) – part of his question might be that you were looking forward and that turns your shoulders past the prop, which makes the cue harder to read. I couldn’t see your face in the video so it is hard to tell – but if you look at him as you step and send to the prop, your shoulders will point right at it 🙂
You can start adding in the other games on the prop now, like the parallel path and countermotion!
Great job with folding in the self-control with the forward focus! You were definitely marking his look forward. You don’t ned to say ‘ok’ because he is not in a stay, you can use your dish marker. It was very cool to see how obvious his head turns to the cone were – he was like “I AM LOOKING AT THE LINE” LOL! What a smartie!!! That allowed him to work the forward focus and drive around the cone, even with the easiest line being directly to the cookies 🙂
On the backing up video:
>I think he totally understands the movement but he’s so QUICK I am still getting there with timing!>
Totally agree! He is understanding it and his little feets move SO FAST!! Keeping your hands lower definitely helped – and you can try just using a flick of the wrist to toss the treats back to get more steps.
We will also be adding to this with a ‘destination’ soon, which will make it easier for you to reward 🙂 Stay tuned!!
>Fuzzy tugs! I moved off the food smelly rug and he was all in! >
Perfect! It can be hard to tug in a cloud of food smell 🙂 so moving away worked really well.
>Also, his “trade” is like his most reliable cue right now. I tried it outside with no food, and he let go AND REGRIPPED THE TOY when presented! >
Yay!! Very cool!!
>WOw I think I should buy a lottery ticket hehe.>
Do it!!! LOL!
Great job on these!!
TracyGood morning!
It is great to rehearse these procedures!!
He was comfortable here and it was a quiet environment, so he held the stay as you left to go put the leash down then came back then led out… but I think that takes too long in environments that are harder and he will lose focus. So bringing him in, get a trick perhaps, get the leash off and just drop it or do a small toss of it – then lead out. Instead of it taking 20 or 30 seconds, try to get the release to the first jump to happen within 10 seconds (before the arousal drops and he notices the distractions). You also don’t need to use a stay – you can start at a tunnel and just send him in!
It will be great to use the food station at the trial! And extra great to have someone who can help with that – totally worth it! The other option is to do the first run with the empty lotus ball in your hand – just as a way to bridge the gap between training and trialing. And if he is happy with that, you can leave the lotus ball in the food box!
Keep me posted!
Tracy
Hi!
Bummr about the weather!!! Maybe you can bring the Manners Minder to her in-person class to add more distance skills? Those are such a popular challenge on course nowadays.
>In the recent weeks, with the treats not also available quickly, and the treat container on a chair near the porch (that remote bit), she is happily charging back to me for praise as much as treats or toys. I know many trainers would not view this as ideal, but I’m happy with it. >
I think it is pretty ideal, since you will want to take her to trials! We want the dogs to be happy with food and toy, of course, but just as happy with praise from you in the ring because we can’t bring in the toys or treats!
Tracy
