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Good morning! I guess I didn’t hear the conversation at he beginning where your paparazzi told you that you were up now, not in 2 dogs. Good job keeping calm! I am not sure if you wee quite ready or not, but you just went in and did great. Yay!
Basing was fabulous – looked very comfy and really had fun killing the toy toy 🙂 Nice connection!!! And great choice of what to do. Plus she didn’t seem phased by all the horns.
>We have an outdoor, 1 ring trial on grass this weekend. We are there fri, sat & sun. She is entered on Saturday for FEO.>
Is she entered in more than one class? It might be fun to do a bit more of a course, such as starting at the beginning so she gets used to the leash runner, timing lights, etc. But if it is a crappy course, make up your own sequence instead LOL!!!
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.
Looking at the RR stations video – the flow was looking good! The only thing that looked hard was when you were throwing the leash at the beginning 🙂 Tugging when she is amped up is something to play with, because struggles with tugging can be a great indicator of where her arousal level is: can she let go of the toy and go into a pattern game? Definitely something fun to play with! And yes, you can mix in getting the leash back on before heading to the bowl, so she is used to that for the end of the run.
You can add in sequence work – maybe take a sequence from class, and use this game at the start to help her run a short fast sequence ‘for real’ with the rewards behind her.
>Also, can I never say “let’s go” in other contexts in life? I notice that I say it often around the house. Let’s go get dinner, let’s go back to work, let’s go potty…>
In theory, that is correct. We should only ever use a verbal cue in the correct context and when we want that exact behavior. That would mean we should not say ‘let’s go’ or left/right or even her name, right? Or discuss obstacles when she can hear it – if I say tunnel when we are in the kitchen, she should go in a tunnel. LOL! Eeeeek! But life is not a laboratory! So we are strongly relying on the dogs’ understanding of context, meaning that the verbals can definitely have different meanings in different situations. And dogs are brilliant with this! So I am not worried if you say let’s go in other contexts, she will know the difference. Context cues are powerful!
Great job here!
TracyAh this is so true! And as someone new to the breed, I was really surprised about the strange things people said to me – and these people were high level trainers/competitors LOL!! But we just get out there and prove them wrong 🙂
T
Good morning!
Yes, motion to get 4 and then getting the FC on 5 made it hard to not get the bonus jump. Good job continuing as if she was correct (because she was :)) She is finding 4 better and better each time!
Video 3 you got past 5 a lot sooner so the FC was starting before takeoff. Yay! So she read it really well! Then you got excited and pulled her off of 7 🙂
On the last video, you cued 5-6 as a post turn and then a rear cross to 7 and it worked! It slowed you both down and put you behind her though, which could cause trouble somewhere else on a bigger course. I think the FC you did on video 3 put you in a better position (ahead of her) and being ahead is always a good thing.
To make it even easier to get the turn 5-6, this is a good spot to work on layering skills! Starting even closer to 1 and 2, send to tunnel 3 and layer the 6 jump – and get her to take 4 while you are layering. You can use a placed reward to help her drive to 4 at first to teach the layering, then the understanding and verbal will take over and you can take out the placed reward.
Great job here! Fingers crossed for decent weather ahead!
Tracy
Good morning!
The last zoom chat is next Monday, but we are keeping the forum open for a few more weeks after that!
>step 1. per the above, go to the rally class and have dogs warm up, outside the ring.>
Yes! And if there is a running order like there is in agility class, you can have him out and getting ready while the previous dog is finishing their turn. Build up to making it trial-like!
>step 2. If Knight passes step 1, then I could possibly arrange with an agility instructor at a different location to do the pattern game, spin, bounce, etc outside the ring and then enter the ring, go to jump 1 and see his reaction similar to what I did on video at the rally class. >>
Also yes! There are lots of good agility instructors in your area that will allow a drop in.
And in classes, mix in runs that are fun without all the pressure: easy fast courses where you do have cookies in the ring.
>If reaction is positive, take collar off and have him go over the jump and put collar on and say lets go and go to his goodies outside the ring.>
Yes, and maybe do a short fun sequence.
>If reaction is shutdown, run him out of the ring and say lets go and get his goodies.>
Ideally the doesn’t happen. Rather than take the collar off, you can also start him near a tunnel (he loves tunnels, right?) and take the leash off, gently hold his collar, and do a ready-set-go! And run through the tunnel. Or if he gets concerned, rather than leave the ring, you can relieve the pressure by moving him further from the people/dogs and start more in the center of the ring and see if that helps.
> If he does shut down, what are your thoughts on proceeding to the second round? Take back in and run him back out if he shuts down?>
I don’t want to develop running out to cookies as a coping strategy if he gets concerned. So if he is concerned in round 1, you can set up round 2 to have food in the ring – the reward station can be inside the ring instead of outside the ring (a small chair that you put your cookies on after entering the ring. In fact, this might be a better approach in new environments: have the reward station inside ther ring for now rather than outside the ring.
>Also where I train at there is a UKI trial every month through the winter (Dec through April) with mulligans. My thinking is doing the pattern games outside the ring which I know he will be happy doing the first day. Second day only sign up for one run. Pattern games. >
Remember to do tricks too! If you sign up for a run, I think it is a good time to find something he will enjoy inside the ring, like a lotus ball on a fur toy that he can chase around. That way there is a toy inside the ring! And his reward station should be right outside the ring and he should be able to see it.
>Take him in the ring. Gage him. If he is in shutdown mode, run him out of the ring and go get the goodies.>
Again, I don’t want to develop a habit of shutdown inside the ring then get cookies. Instead of taking the leash off to see if he shuts down, you can do in, get a fun trick, run out for cookies. So rather than test to see what he does, approach it as asking for really easy fun things on leash. If he can do a trick, run back in and take the leash off and o a trick then run out for a cookie. Do this during a Mulligan run, where there are no rules (I am sure your trainer will want to help you, especially if it the last Mulligan run). And you can also do a ready-set-go start.
> If engage, take collar off and do a jump or a contact (second day first runs are agility. He loves the dog walk, teeter) and out of the ring and do a mulligan.>
You can include contacts for sure in the in and out fun times. This plus the tricks inside the ring and mixing in runs where you can drag the toy around for him to chase can all build up to letting him have fun in the ring.
Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Hi!
He did fine with the snuffling, of course 🙂 He was very happy to do it and looked relaxed!
And yes, it is designed to help return to baseline and balance arousal (especially after a run, or when waiting and trying to chill).So the real questions are, then:
– was this before a run? If so, how did the run go? And what else did you do before the run?
– was this after a run? If so, was he able to settle nicely? And how did the next run go?We observe all of this to see how it works – helpful or not? In the right spot in the warm up to the run or after a run? And we try it multiple times to see if we can find trends in his home base training location as well as other locations. Think of it as collecting data, since we can’t stick electrodes in him LOL!!!
Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
Doing it as a quieter, looped exercise worked well especially if he needed a little confidence rebuilding when the sends went a little sideways. He did really well with the arm and leg step added at the end! For the video, try to get a fuller picture so we can see your upper body cues as well (not just his cuteness :)) as that can give us insight into what he needs as a cue and what is happening when he is not sure.Now that things are back on track… add in a little arousal with a bit of ready game. The arousal regulation is a big piece of this puzzle, so start adding it back and we can see if he has questions or not. And if he has questions, we can totally answer them of course 🙂
Great job here!
Tracy
Hi!
> We are still struggling with me moving. I’ve been trying to wait for him to start moving first to go but if he knows I’m coming he’ll hold back to nip at me.>
I totally see what you mean here!
2 ideas for you to help him drive away rather than waiting for you to give you tooth hugs:
When using a toy, add in a helper! The dead toy might not be as exciting as your moving flesh 🙂 Have to person running away, dragging the toy (a hollee roller or something big attached to a long toy would be perfect). Then you can do a ready set go and race him to it. At first, the other person and be walking fast or jogging, and not too far away (and you can send him to it without you if he needs to get the idea of this variation).
Then as he gets confident with it, the toy dragger can move faster and start further away.Separately, you can use food instead – throw a big chunk of cheese and see if he drives to it better (or have it in a bowl). Food might make it easier for him to ignore your motion than a dead toy.
Let me know how that goes!
Wing wraps: the cone was perfect for this! You can have him go back and forth around the cone so you work both directions in the same session, rather than line him up to go the same direction each time. The right turns looked easy (that seems to be how he rolls :)) and he had a little trouble turning left on the 2nd video. For the left turns, do shorter sessions – and you can add the harder stuff like turn and burn to the right turn reps. He needed a little bit of a break mainly because the left turns were harder.
I bet he would like the toy on this game too – rather than a cookie reward for coming to the other side of the cone, you can smack a toy down and drag it for him to tug on 🙂
The blinds look great! Really nice connection back to him and you were really connecting after the side change. Just be sure to give yourself a head start so he doesn’t catch up to quickly LOL!
You can add in the decel and pivot to the blind crosses, you can see it in the collection sandwich game 🙂
Great job!
TracyI think as regularly as you can, even if it is in different places – we want her rehearsing good mechanics!
T
Good morning! I hope your surgery dog is recovering well!!!!
>I’ve made sure to work with Blast a few times a day still, but the time to record, edit, upload, and post just hasn’t been there.>
It is indeed hard to get it all done! So you don’t need to edit – you can record then just immediately post it up. That might save you some time. If the videos are a little long because of resets or play time, I can scroll through it, no problem. Editing can be a time-consuming pain when life is busy.
Wing wrapping is going great! I like that you made a big fuss about the left turn when he got it the first time – that is harder for him than the right turns. Since the left turn wraps are harder, keep the object closer (or move yourself closer on that side) so it is easier for him to go around it to the left rather than cut across and turn right.
>I thought it was really cute at 0:30 when he caught himself from cutting across and then had a brain fart. I rewarded the effort because he had to expend a lot of his little brain on working that particular problem out.>
That moment was both hilarious and brilliant!! Totally worth a reward – he sorted it out really well! I love how he thought it through.
The next step here is the turn and burn game added last Tuesday. I recommend doing it on a barrel (like a pop up laundry basket) or big cone and not a wing, for a couple of reasons:
– the barrel or big cone will promote a rounder turn, which will transfer better when a jump bar gets added to the wing eventually
– it is easier for us humans to know when to do the FC on the barrel or big cone
– it I possible he will hit the barrel or cone in that game. I prefer to sort that out on the barrel/cone so there is no rehearsal of hitting a wing.If he has not seen a barrel or cone yet, you can show it to him in the game with the 2 bowls – no real distance needed, it would just to build value for it.
>We progressed with the prop game and he’s starting to understand sending behind me to build him up for counter motion.>
Yes! He did great!
>I am seeing a lot of focus on my hand, and he does kind of try to bite it in the air sometimes. >
The prop game is designed to sort out things like “don’t bite us” 🙂 The first bunch of reps on both sides went great. Right turns on the sideways and backwards sends were perfect and I was very happy with strong his backwards sends to the left turns were! SUPER!!
At 1:04 you moved the prop further away – this is where you can really see him shift his focus: during the ready game, he is looking at you and your hands, which is the appropriate place to look. Then when you did the sends, he immediately shifting his focus to the obstacle. That was perfection!!!
At the end is when I could see a bit of jumping towards your hands (I didn’t see any earlier in the video – let me know if I missed it).
He had a little jumping up at your hands at 1:43 then a miss on the prop (the first one of the session) then a jump up again before the next send. I am glad you ended after that – my guess about why he started jumping up there was that the session was just a little too long for a baby puppy. Lots of reps of the same thing (which required a lot of impulse control to move away from the treats) and not enough tug breaks.
So you can structure the session a little differently: tug at the beginning, then tuck the toy away. Do 2 or 3 reps with treats – then take a tug break and let him play a bit. Then another 2 or 3 treats, then a tug break. Maybe do one more round of that, 2 or 3 or 4 reps… then tug then be finished. Working an impulse control skill like this in higher arousal is hard and depletes puppies faster than we expect. So the whole session can be about a minute long, then he can be finished.
>but I still want to talk about it some.>
Totally worth it to discuss!!! Is Blast related to your older boy? We do often find genetic similarities in responses to arousal or frustration. Usually when a dog jumps up and bites in agility, it is a combination of lack of arousal regulation built into training, and tipping over into frustration (like when they are not getting clear enough connection, late cues, or being stopped to fix something when they read the cue correctly). Usually adding a bit of arousal regulation and also clarifying handling cues helps the biting go away entirely. And with the puppies, we are building in the arousal regulation from the start (as well as games for when our handling is NOT clear and they have to self-regulate and not get frustrated LOL!!). You can work the resilience track and stealth self-control games with your older boy to help him out too!
His resilience walk/exploration of the tables/chairs/cafe area was great. The goal is to let him watch the world and process it, exposing him to a variety of new things. You can let him explore for longer without getting food involved – the food and offering getting on things is useful but the exposure to just look at the different environments is critical for brain development (without our input or cookies :)) It might not look like anything major on the surface because it is not operant at all… but his brain is definitely processing a lot and that is perfect 🙂
>so he’s either adjusting to that particular space, or just feeling more bold now.>
Probably both! Which is why we let puppies explore, world watch, and just generally get exposed to things.
>not be too concerned about games like that when he’s already relatively confident. >
There is nothing to be concerned about but I suggest continuing these games sprinkled in your daily life and adventures – because we want his brain to wire the exposures in before adolescence hits 🙂 And then we keep doing it in adolescence (usually in conjunction with the pattern games that we added this week) to help survive adolescence LOL!
Look at the decel and pivot video: this went well too!
Turning right was easier for him and turning left was harder, as we are seeing across the games. So pivot more slowly on the left turns so he can sort out staying nice and tight to you.
He did great moving to just the hand target! Remember to break things up with tugging if you are not already mixing it into the session that are using a lot of food. And since he is targeting to an empty hand with the pivot, you can reward with a toy!
One thing I notice here is that he appears to be leaving the stay before you call him on a lot of reps – he starts moving when you stop moving and look at him. Now, it is entirely possible that the sound on the video could be off and YouTube is messing with me LOL!!! But using a stay, try to mix up the timing of the release so it is not always paired with you stopping or looking back at him (just in case YouTube is not messing with me LOL!). We don’t want him to anticipate the release and think the stopping or connection is the release.
The blind crosses went great – excellent job with the mechanics of the connection on the new side. That is helping him read the blind immediately and change sides immediately too. He was definitely getting faster on each rep, so you can start the blind the instant he lifts his head from the food bowl 🙂 If you start it after he takes a step or two, you are a little late 🙂
The food bowl cookie was great for making the food easy to find, and he was fabulous about going back and forth between food and toys. Yay!
>I don’t have any questions here, just want to make sure we’re on track with our progress and if there is anything I need to clean up or pay more attention to.>
Both the decel game and the blind cross game are going super well, which means you can move forward to the collection sandwich game which combines thee 2 games and also adds in driving ahead (toy races).
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Good morning!
She was a plankrobatics star here! And I loved her trying to climb the pile while your back was turned getting more treats LOL!!! Clever and brave! Also I am jealous of all the pink objects 🙂
She was vey comfy on the plank walking back and forth and turning around. No worries that I could see when it was moving a little with the disc under it.
And tugging then having her hop back on was great, no worries when the disc was under one end and the little bone under the other. She jumped up easily when it was more elevated in that case!
Since she seems happy with movement and a little bit of height of the board, as can incorporate a bit of sound. We can put something a little noisy under the little bone, like an empty, semi-crushed plastic water bottle. That should make a bit of a crunching sound? Or maybe a pile of crunched up paper?
When you add noise, make the movement of the board easier by only having one inflatable under it (the bone is best because you can fit the noise maker under it) and not both of them – just in case it is hard for her, we don’t want to over-do the challenge.
Great job here!!
Tracy
Good morning!
>I, unfortunately, didn’t press record on the most important part, which was the prop sends. >
That is the Murphy’s Law of dog training – forgetting to hit record on the most important sessions LOL!!
>Hopefully I can get some video tomorrow because I’m really struggling with it. He’s happy to run ahead of me for a toy, but he absolutely does not want to go ahead of me to target an object. >
Definitely get me some video so we can plan 🙂 The reason for using a prop is to sort all of this out before the obstacles get added – mechanics, how to build value, sends, countermotion, etc. Driving ahead to the toy is fine, we don’t need the prop concept for that – but we find it super useful for all of the other things like countermotion and value building and impulse control.
>The last time we worked on it, he jumped up and bit me and I reflexively yelped and swore, and even though it wasn’t intentionally directed at him, I think that really got into his head with the sending picture.>
You can totally change out the prop 🙂 Use something bigger and more obvious/easy to touch – do you have a foam square, for example? Or small box? Back in the olden days, we would use a phone book but I don’t think those exist anymore LOL! But I have used a cookbook! Or a box of wine!
Using a bigger prop can make it easier for a baby pup. You can cleanse the palate and do a quick build up of value on the new prop, then go into the sending.
If he jumped up and bit you, then it is likely he was frustrated and failing too much. So stay close to the prop for the sends, and be really clear and almost slow in the mechanics of the send. Looking at the pup on the forward sends helps a lot! And to really pump up the value of leaving you, you can also toss the treat to the prop when he is going to it. No need for a toy in the early session til we see what is happening.
The jump ’n’ bite might also be an arousal question based on the arm/leg motion of the send, so you can approach the value building differently: tug tug tug to get the higher arousal, then place the new prop on the ground and just let him offer without sending. This challenges him to find the prop through the internal haze of arousal. Then after a couple of treat rewards, more tug tug tug tug 🙂
And video all the things and we can plan!
LOVE THE SONG on the first video 🙂 The pattern game looked great! Easy peasy for him! So the next step is to have you also walking back and forth (to be ready to use this game as you are moving from point A to point B in an exciting environment) and also to add a leash. The leash is a necessary thing because he will be on leash most of the time when you play this… and it is also an annoyance in terms of mechanics 😂🤣 so adding it early will help both of you find it easy to use.
More of this awesome song on video 2! And another fun one after it! They will be in my head all day, thank you 🙂
He did well with the bowls. It took a heartbeat to get going again when you added the cone, but he got right back into the groove (literally almost the same rhythm as the song).He is ready for the next steps here. For the next session, using your cone:
Start where you left off here: bowls, cone, you on the stool. And a good tune 🤣 When he gets into the groove going around it, you can push it a little further away.If that is fine? Change your position to standing up.
I am guessing that can happen in one short session (adding a little distance and getting you standing).
For the next session, you can choose your adventure:
Start standing up with the cone close to you, then add more and more distance, bit by bit (the bowls are still in the picture).Or if you want ore excitement, go to the Turn and burn game 🙂 There is a lot of running in this one, so it might need to be outside if the weather ever gets civilized again – and since that is a new environment, a warm up session of just the cone and bowls with you standing is probably the best place to start (to be sure he can do the behavior in the new environment).
Goat tricks. Excellent playlist there too!
He did great with his proprioception in higher arousal! Hind end is definitely harder on the disc – it is smaller now that he is growing 🙂 and it is very inflated, but he did great getting all four feet on and balancing!!
The Cato plank over the bowl like a mini teeter was awesome too. Good timing of tossing the treat when he made the board move! You can use a toy between each rep here: can he tug then slam the board with a little weight shift in higher arousal?
You can make a huge playing field now for him to walk/trot across: the inflated disc, the mini teeter set up, a couch cushion, anything else you have: put the all together n the floor next to each other and semi-piled up. Then get him excited with the toy, and let him climb all of it, turn around on the pile. Hop on and off, etc.
Great job here!!
TracyGood morning!
>You are correct, she offered the wrap before I offered the food. So far, she has NEVER turned down food that has been offered. LOVES food.>
Ok good! Turning down food during training and/or when a toy is present is something we’ve seen in Border Collies but I haven’t seen it in agility in Border-Whippets. But I wanted to check to be sure, because it is something to note and work on. But I also love when we don’t have to work on things LOL!
>And at the end I let her keep the toy for a bit, just wander around with it while I turned off the camera and picked things up to go inside. I tried to pick up the semi-abandoned toy and she kept trying to re-engage/bite my arm, which is when I remembered I intended to food scatter and yes she happily did so and then came inside easily.>
Ok perfect – the tooth hugs were maybe not perfect but that is also normal LOL! and the early scatters will help those go away.
Tracy
Good morning!
Hoping for no more snow! And warm temperatures for a while!!!
The pattern game looked really strong here – nice use of markers and he was re-engaging really quickly. Super! The further you tossed the treats, the more he was able to move around. And movement is actually an important element of this particular pattern game (it helps with the arousal regulation).
He is ready for the next steps of this:
– you can start moving around too, walking back and forth while playing. This is just to simulate moving him through an environment while playing this game.
– add a leash to this, because he will be on leash when playing this most of the time. And leashes are a pain in b*tt in terms of mechanics for both you, so adding it at this early stage will really help smooth that out
– take it on the road into happy places, using high value food. Outside the ring at classes or trials will be perfect!>Judge did some nice backing up on the plank tonight as part of his puppy fitness routine, but I had shut the camera off already. He’s up to 1/2 the plank (6 feet) with a may to target on the plank.>
This is great! That is excellent body awareness for an adolescent big dude!!!!!
Nice work here!
Tracy
