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Good morning!
Yes, the heat has been awful!!! Hopefully it breaks soon.
She did well on the mountain climber game!!
And she was fine to jump off when she lost her balance after turning around – she can even have a cookie for bravery 🙂Since she was happy to run up the board, you can add in a target at the top by duct taping something to the top of the board or underside so it sticks up and out a bit. Yes, I carry duct tape and a target to different facilities LOL!!
That way you can place a reward on it before she gets on the board. Then she can run up the board looking straight ahead to the reward, and you can add some independent handling (like moving past the end of the board). A bit of cream cheese is perfect, because you can put a dab of it on the target and she can lick it while you are moving away from the board or doing a rear cross, etc.Looking at the wing-tunnel-wing game:
I grabbed some screenshots so you can have a visual of the moments I am pinpointing here 🙂 Here is the link to them:https://docs.google.com/document/d/13Rr771QKL3b0oZ1bxOYQqgTh74QRtfmquG3tYqoGNv4/edit?usp=sharing
I think we can get better commitment by getting clearer connection and taking your arm cues out of it 🙂 You were tending to point ahead of her at the obstacles, which blocks connection and turned your shoulders away from the line. If you tried to move away, you got a refusal. If you held still til she saw the line, she got it but then you needed serious hustle to get the next part, which caused questions there.
Ideally, your arm follows her nose the whole time. So if she is behind you, your arm is pointing to her. Yes, the arm can go forward but that is best for after she passes you 🙂 And always have your eyes on her eyes as you move – that turns the line of your shoulders to the line you want her to take, and makes it very visible for her.
Looking at various moments:
You had a refusal at 1:29 (same thing happened at 2:14) – by using the arm to point forward, the send was turned away and there was no verbal, plus lots of other obstacles around. You can reward her for effort. She did get it at 1:52 but you had to hold position.
Compare to 1:41 where you had better position, better connection, and said tunnel. You can connect even more, look even more directly at her and point forward less.
Same at 1:45, after the tunnel: You were looking ahead and pointing ahead so she had a question about the line.
She got it better at 1:55 but that was based on you getting closer to the jump.When you ran with connection and had minimal or no pointing? She nailed it 🙂 Check out 2:10! You will tighten that turn by adding decel as she exits the tunnel, but let’s celebrate the connection first! And you had more gorgeous connection (and no questions from Tarot) at 2:43 as she exited the tunnel. That rep also had some decel so you got the collection before take off on the wrap!!
At 2:49, you did a big send by pointing ahead of her and that changed the line of the cue: connection blocked and shoulders turned away from the jump, so she came to you.
So definitely work the sequences with your arm low and back to her nose, and making eye contact (as you keep moving) the #1 thing. If you make the clear connection, she will not look at you at all 🙂 If you break connection by looking ahead and pointing ahead, she will look at you to figure out what you want.
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Hi!
You and Fusion were AMAZING in class!!! Well done!!!!!!!!!!And I am glad we got it done before the rains came.
>>One question meant to ask the brake arm is this only used for tirns or can it be used for general collection eg before the weaves>>
I suppose it can be used before the weaves to help the dog. Ideally, the weave entries would be so well-trained that we would not need to, but it would be interesting to experiment with brake arms to see if the dog is more successful that way! Try it and let me know!
Tracy
OMG! I am glad you are all safe! Sorry about your truck, what a pain!!!!!!!!!
Looking forward to the videos when you have a chance to get to the field!Tracy
Yes, that was my screw up, sorry!!!! Thankfully you got the correct link in time. Stay cool!!!!!
Tracy
Hi!
She is doing really well with the layered line and finding the tunnel! Super!
One thing to consider with the verbals – it sounds like you were using ‘push’ for 4 (which is a front side) and for 6 (which is a backside). I think a ‘jump’ verbal is better for 4, and then push can be for the true backside at 6.
>>We are having trouble with commitment if I am moving. I feel that I’m looking at the landing spot, but maybe I’m not doing it correctly.>>
There were a couple of things happening here:
Yes, on the true countermotion reps where your feet were moving forward to the next jump (at :43 and 1:15) – you were looking at her and not back to the landing. So as she is moving to the backside entry wing, you can shift your connection to look at the landing as you move past the jump, and your dog-sde arim can point to the landing spot.
You were starting to do that at 1:31 and she came in a lot better. Be sure not to rotate your feet though, because that will make it a lot harder to keep moving forward on those backsides to be ahead for the next line.
Also, the backside push verbal is a compound verbal that means ‘go to the other side AND jump the bar’. I think she has understanding of the first part (go to the backside) but not of the 2nd part (jump to bar) so you will want to train that. To train it, lower the bar, don’t move as fast, and cue the behavior, Keep walking through it it and as she is approaching the backside entry, shift your connection to the landing spot (eyes and arm). And, this is the important part: toss the reward to the landing spot as you keep moving past it. The placement of reward is super important here – dropping it independently of your position really helps solidify understanding to take the bar rather than relying on your physical cues to help her come in to take it.
When she can do it with you walking (and not rotating your feet), you can start to go faster: jogging then eventually running.
On the reps where she did come in (:56, 1:03, 1:24, 1:45, 2:02 you were helping without countermotion by staying on landing side and rotating your feet. That definitely got her to successfully come over the bar, but I think using the countermotion and dropping the toy on landing as you move past the jump will help get her to do it without needing any foot rotation.
During the training, remember not to get caught up in trying to execute the handling move 🙂 Look for the training opportunities and how to build the skills, as these are more important than the handling moves. When you were having trouble getting the blind cross exit on the backside, you started to get frustrated and stopped rewarding her so she slowed down a lot… then 1:51 – you sent to where she went on 4 and then told her she was wrong. She starting getting careful (trotting) so you will want to do 2 things to avoid her slowing down:
– keep rewarding and breaking the skills down is a handling move is going wrong, rather than withholding reward
– stop and watch the video and see why it is going wrong, as the video will givey you great info!>>Also, I know you have been busy, so it might not have been posted yet, but did I miss an email about the conditioning guest instructor camp webinar being posted?>>
The email is probably flying around in spam somewhere LOL!! The webinar is posted here:
Recording Of Special Guest Instructor Live Zoom with Stefanie Theis!
Great job!!
Tracy
Good morning! Nice work here!
Seq 1 – this opening is one where you will definitely want to get her looking forward on the brake arm release. She was looking at you on the first release and did not take the jump. You can use a bowl or toy on the other side of 1 to work the skill, then fade it (starting with you closer to the jump, then gradually moving further away). She got it on the 2nd rep at :29 when you stepped in more, but was still looking at you on the release.
Getting the turn on the tunnel exit:
The decel and brake arm were timely before she went into the tunnel at :35 – Nice!! You can add a directional such as ‘right’ or a tight turn tunnel exit cue at the same time as the physical cue, to help her differentiate between the turn and the straight line exits.
Your arm cues were even stronger at :57 and she had an even better turn. SUPER!!Layering worked well at :47 because you had a parallel path the whole time and were ahead when she exited the tunnel. That gives you a positional advantage to be able to use a brake arm in this context. On the 180 at :48 and 1:41, for example, that is a perfect spot for it – as she exits the tunnel, you can be showing the brake arm along with the dog side arm, and a little decel as you turn your shoulders. Without the brake arms there, she lands long then turns after landing. The brake arms should allow you to turn and go while also getting lovely turns before takeoff.
The brake arms for the wrap at 1:43 were GREAT – that was a nice turn!! The brake can probably come sooner, when she is about halfway between the 2 jumps. But it was really fun to see how well she responded!!
The last sequence had the backside wrap at 2. You had too much forward motion on the first few reps. For example at 1:56 – as she was landing from 1, you were moving forward and that set her on the line to 3. You had less moment forward at 2:19 and 2:32, but still had motion so she went to 3. She was pretty convinced! And when the dog is pretty convinced, we can assume there is *something* in our cue that is unclear about what we want. So rewarding her is fine and I highly recommend stopping to look at the video so you can see what the cause was.
Showing it to her from just jump 2 was fine, but the context is different and doesn’t change the response to the cue she was seeing 🙂
Be stationary and a little rotated (with your right hip near the bar) so she can see the wing. You were moving forward on the release on the last rep, but when she landed from 1 at 3:05, you stopped moving and you were rotated. You can see her head turn because motion no longer supported the off course, so she came to the backside at 2.
The rest of the sequence looked great!! Running the line with her was a perfect way to end – fast and fun!!Great job :) Tracy
Good morning!
The mat work started off a little hoppy, probably because of the different visual. Then it ended up being just fine! She had really nice hits on the last couple of reps. We actually want her to lope more than run at the moment so she can organize her mechanics and so you can see what she is doing. Give this game a day or two off between sessions so latent learning can work its magic 🙂 You will see faster progress that way, rather than trying it every day.
Hooray for the rear cross! She got them in both directions – nice cues!!!! Just be careful to NOT do a rear cross when you say go and throw the reward straight (:47) 😁. And keep mixing in lots of straight lines so she keeps that skill fresh.
Great job!!
TracyGood morning!
Amazing how 90 degrees is the cold day – eek!! Having the pool and the cool coat seemed to help him. It looked like he was engaged and happy to play! Super!!!
>>Not sure how productive it was because while he was ‘in the game’, I feel like I was doing it all wrong… My hand is too high, that I know but I’m sure that wasn’t the only ‘problem’ on my part>>
I think it was very productive 🙂 He got lots of reward for finding the lines! He did better when you were looking at him and moving forward on the line, rather than pointing at the jump – the connection is what turns your shoulders to the line, and that is what he reads as the commitment cue. He still committed with the arm send, but he looked at you a little more on those.
And the thrown rewards out on the line really help solidify the commitment. It sounds like you were using ‘yes’ as the marker – do you have a marker like ‘get it’ that indicates he was correct AND the reward is out ahead? The more he knows to keep looking ahead, the better he will commit to the lines.
And when you started him from the stay – he was really driving! Yay! That was impressive, especially considering the smaller space and the super hot temperatures!
>>Suggestions about setup? We can’t go to Agility field because of this weather, and on backyard, that’s ‘all’ space I have. I was using wing instead of tunnel but my tunnel is actually only 10-feet so maybe it’s better to put tunnel (on ‘far’ side of the yard)?>>
I think that the tunnel is not ideal in the heat – partially because it gets hot inside the tunnel, and partially because for him it is harder work to get through the tunnel which could make him hotter than just using jumps and wings.
He did need an extra step to find the side of the wing you wanted, so two setup ideas for you:
– you can rotate the tunnel-replacer-wing 90 degrees and see if that makes it easier for him to go around
– you can replace the wing with a big cone or barrel if you have one. The ones/barrels are more obvious to the dogs regarding which side to go around, so the commitment will be more like what a small dog would do on a tunnel: blast around it really fast. Let me know if that makes sense!Great job here!! Stay cool and hopefully you get to spend lots of time in the pool 🙂
Tracy
Welcome back! It looks like you had a great time!!!!
The plank work was a perfect way to get back into the swing of training. She didn’t know she was supposed to go past you, so you can keep moving and also have a visual target (like a bowl) at each end to trot to.
To get her turning around, you can use a hand cue for her to follow (you added one at the end) – I think that will help stabilize the right turns too
I think she is ready for you to elevate the plank – do you have blocks or something you can put under the ends and the middle? That way you can also add hopping off the middle!
On the sending video:
>>Discovered she finds it very hard to line up at the tunnel exit but was able to do it with a treat lure.>>
Yes, it is WEIRD lol!!!!! A cookie lure was perfect 🙂
The one step sends at the 6 foot distance was no problem in either direction. The miss on the left turn wrap (first rep that direction) was more of a neighbor dog distraction than anything else.
When adding the middle jump, you can move to the first wing more and do the send to the middle wing, which should feel smoother than sending to both.
She had a question on the wraps to her right at 2:25 and 2:40 and 3:03 – you sorted it out that it was more connection needed plus a later send. When she turned to her left, there was not very clear connection plus the send happened while she was still in the tunnel.
You had better step timing at 3:03 (later, so it was more visible to her) and then perfect connection AND timing of the send on the last rep 🙂 Lovely!Her left turns seem stronger (which seemed to be the case on the plank too) so the extra emphasis on the right turn lines really helped her sort out the mechanics.
Great job!! Let me know what you think.
Tracy
Good morning!
>>Venture has a trained back up to feet on raised object (like a 2o2o). Is it ok to ask him for that when we play the game?>>
Absolutely! If he is used to doing the onto things that don’t move, you can brace the wobble board (and eventually the teeter) so it doesn’t move at first then add movement back very gradually. We don’t want him to be surprised by movement.
>>Question about the motion game. I don’t have a wobble board but I do have a 3′ rubber board that tips. Ven isn’t really phased by motion so do you think it’s ok to just use that rather than a true multi direction wobble board?>>
Yes, it sounds like this will work well!
I think the video is going better!! he had a lot of success here. You are both better at this connection and commitment when he is on your right, When he is on your left (turning to his right), he is not as clear about the commitment and you tend to turn your arm high and forward more like t :50 and 1:07. That looks like the beginning of a blind, which is why he would end up behind you there. If that happens, and you lost track of him, just throw the lotus ball to keep him moving so he doesn’t freeze up thinking he was wrong.
>>I don’t think I’m getting the left arm back far enough but I’m not totally sure that’s why he kept missing the second jump coming out of the tunnel going clockwise. Am I diagnosing it correctly?>>
Yes – it is a good camera angle to see the left arm coming up high and forward, so from behind it looks like a side change starting.
>>Should I be rewarding more often, life maybe after 2 obstacles, before we lose the connection?>>
Yes, but also do fewer reps 🙂 If you get a good one, call it a day and do something else 🙂 Sometimes we are great on the first rep then things get shaky LOL!!!
>>For rewards, I’m throwing the lotus ball on the line which just isn’t very far away >>
I think it is fine for now, and will also work well in bigger spaces!
>> Is there a way I could mark and send him away to a manners minder to get his reward? I was hesitant to try that because I can’t really put it on course without it becoming a predictable source/place to get reward.>>
Probably not an effective way to have it off to the side and still reward commitment, so the lotus ball is going to be best for now. And it provides an opportunity to ignore your hands and look for jumps.
>>I’m thinking almost like the beginning of working in the ring and then going back to the setup to get the reward.>>
That is a great thing (remote reinforcement) but it doesn’t necessarily transfer to line finding. So you can keep going with the food rewards – lotus ball or giant pieces of visible food 🙂
You can totally move forward from this setup now – it doesn’t need to be perfect 🙂 The concepts will transfer to the next games and that way you and Ven don’t get bored with the same set up 🙂 Also, remember that latent learning is magic – give him a few days off from handling to let his brain cement the learning and I bet he comes back with no questions. It works the same for us humans 🙂
Nice work here!
Tracy
Good morning!
>>Huge wins include
Yay for huge wins!
>> (1) less shoe biting attacks (though still happens);
When does he bite your shoes?
>>((6) really nice sofa cuddles (newest and bestest).
Ah yes, these are so nice 🙂
>>The not-so-good and most puzzling: JP has started chasing his tail WITH catch and hold to tear at it. I feel utterly helpless with this one. >>
Hmmmm, this could be a number of things but definitely worth getting checked out – check him out physically because it could be a pain issue causing it, and also it could be the tip of an OCD behavior so it might be worth checking in with a behavior specialist. BCs are known to have the potential for some OCD behaviors so we definitely want to take a look at it before it gets more frequent.
>> I am broken again, making extra duty difficult.>>
Oh no! Feel better!!!
>> I think this is attention-getting behavior, but I’m not really sure.
Possibly? But definitely something to look at from a behavior perspective, If he gets a lot of stimulation (exercise, attention, etc) and the behavior increases rather than decreases, that could be a sign that it is not attention seeking.
>>Balancing boredom against his need to relax and get puppy rest. Any suggestions or experience with this would be most welcome.>
Mental stimulation is always a good one – food games, chew bones, eating meals from food puzzles or kong or Toppls, and routines for physical exercise. I also have xpens or use leashes to keep the dogs with me when I am sitting down or at a table/desk for when I am in the house and the pup needs to relax without being in a crate. That helps with some of the at home behavior with active young dogs – I use food rewards to help them settle down and not need to be busy.
Looking at the videos:
The lazy game is going well! He totally got the idea. You can spread the jumps out a bit and also move on to the week 2 games which use a very similar setup. I think you were using a marker for the treats (it got clearer as the session went along), so be sure to say the marker before throwing it. When using a toy – throw the toy too 🙂 so he doesn’t start to look back at you on these lines.
The toy from your hand works well for the tight FC wraps because on those we do want him driving back to you.
When you are ahead of him on the sends (like at 1:03, 1:11 and 1:24, for example), be sure to connect back to him rather than point ahead. When you point ahead he was tending to go a little wide (looking for connection). He took the wing nicely because yo were next to it, but the connection will be really helpful when you are not as close to the wing.
Those were when he was on your right. When he was on your left, you look to be very connected when he exited the tunnel and his turns were tighter, because he knew where he was going sooner 🙂
You were pretty quiet here – so now add all the verbals 🙂 They include the wrap verbals, the tunnel verbals, and the left/right verbals for when he goes from the wing after the tunnel to the middle wing. That will help the verbals become second-nature for you!
The plank game looked really easy for him! Yay! Doing the elevated plank indoors was great because he is ready for it – we want to be able to elevate the long plank as well, so do you have blocks or something you can put under it when you are on the grass?
Using the bowls kept his head straight so you can keep using the bowls – and you can move them to slight angles (on an arc towards you) so that he can practice entering the plank on a slight angle.Elevating the plank is the next step (6 inches or so is great) – and then when it is elevated, you can add on turning around in the middle as well as hopping off from the middle, so he learns how to get off if he loses his balance (rather than falling off).
He did well with the mountain climber game too! After the first introductory reps, he was more than happy to run up to the target YAY!! (Thank you to the helper who are loading the target in advance! When you are working on your own, continue to load the target in advance so he does not watch your hands for the food (he was beginning to do that). And with the food loaded on the target, you can then add some of the small handling moves like you driving ahead, or a rep cross.
Great job here!!
Tracy
Good morning!
This went really well!
>>I left all the yucky stuff in. Not gonna hide my crap dog training or frustration with the starts at this point. I can’t even hold her collar bc it makes her nuts>>
Funny, I was thinking these were some of the best start stays I have seen from her!
She was on fire and tossing her head LOL!!! Sure you can probably pretend you are chill as she gets a bit wild and don’t say things like ‘stop’, or release sooner on the stay, but she did her stays and didn’t check out. I agree she was not loving the collar hold, so your decision to line up and not hold her was the right decision. Some dogs do not like to be touched when they are teetering at the top of arousal, so we don’t touch them.You can mix in some stays and line ups with some filing & go just to keep everyone’s arousal level down, and so it is not all about the start of the sequence.
>>the layering went really well but I am wondering if it’s simply because it’s a tunnel.>>
I agree! She did really well with the layering! And yes, having the tunnel as a big piece of that probably helped but that is a common element of layering anyway, so it is good to work on 🙂
She seemed to find all of the lines after the tunnel really well too!
>>If you say that my handling cues match what the layer should look like yay! If she’s just zooming to a tunnel what do I do?>>
I don’t think she was just zooming to the tunnel, because you didn’t have to work that hard to get her to NOT take the tunnel on the last 2 reps. She came to the backside pretty easily! So I think the handing was indeed sending her to it correctly.
More proof that she was listening and not just zooming around was at 2:45 – you were over-turned so the send was not as clear as it was at 3:01 and the previous reps – so she took the line you turned too rather than the pinwheel jump. Yay!
Nice push to the backside, especially after the ‘go tunnel’ reps! She had no trouble reading the different cue and not going to the tunnel to 3:04. Yes, get out of the way sooner for the blind – as soon as you see her looking at the backside, start sliding away while looking at the landing spot to support commitment, and I think she will be just fine finding the bar without potentially hitting you 🙂
On the last rep you added her name after the push – was it because she was looking straight? You can try the reverse – say her name then say the push cue to see if she turns a bit sooner.
Great job here!!!
Tracy
Hi!
I think the brake arm sequences here went really well! You had strong connection throughout and great job with the verbals!Only have subtle details for you…
I think almost all of the questions/bloopers were because you went too close to jump 2, which made the layering hard to get to because you had to get past the layered jump – so either she saw you pulling away and that changed the line, or you decelerated on the send to the tunnel and that also changed the exit line.
When you led out less, you easily got ahead of her at the tunnel and could she see the info really well!!
The brake arms worked really well for the 180 turn on sequence 1! It will be even easier with a lead out where you don’t go past the layered jump so you can show the brake arms from ahead of her when she gets out of the tunnel.
You can also play with showing the brake arms and turning away from her rtaher than towards her on these 180/post turn lines.
For the ’in in’ threadle at the end – keep moving and cue a turn on 5 (after she lands from 4) to set up the threadle line, then go to your threadle verbal and arm for 5 before she takes off for 5. You had a bar down at :13 because you stopped moving then moved forward again. And on the threadle exit, remember to keep your arm back on the threadle til she looks at the correct side of the jump, that is part of the cue (the ‘go back out’ part after coming in towards you to start the in-then-out threadle 🙂 )
Seq 2:
Nice job on the wrap!!! You are getting really good collection, so remember tp stay connected after the FC side change so she can see the next line clearly. You had a bar on first rep when you took off without connection.
As you were working out the timing of the wrap on 4:
You were a little late at 1:41, got stuck behind the layering jump due to a lead out that was a little too long. Then I think you were sorting out the timing of the send to the layering, and you were a little late leaving 2 for the tunnel send (bar down).Then you switched it up at 2:47 and you were too early on the rotation (this was also due to getting a little stuck behind the jump layering, so you’re overcompensating perhaps by hitting the brakes and rotating sooner). The decel with the brake arms will work well so you don’t need to rotate that early.
Last rep was SUPER nice, great timing on the FC wrap and lovely connection to show her the backside at 6!! YAY!! That was the sweet spot of timing and connection 🙂
>>. Although I did a slice on 6 and not a wrap. Not intentionally – I just forgot that it was a wrap.>>
No worries! The challenge was to get her to 6, so the exit (wrap or slice) was not that important.
Great job here!!
TracyHi!
>> I don’t know why I can’t get the reward placement thing down when I’m running my own dog! I see the right placement when other people are running, haha.
I think that it is because we humans are not great at multi-tasking 🙂 Plan the reward placement when you train alone, so you don’t need to think about it. And when you are training with other people, hand them the reward so they can throw it LOL!!! Remember to throw the toy miles away here too, lots of reward was dropped near you.
On the video:
>>I have never really used brake arms purposefully before, so it felt a bit awkward to run with my arms out, lol.>
It feels a bit weird at first, yes, but you will love the results! There was a bit of Goldilocks action here: too much, not enough, and plenty of just right 🙂
One thing with the brake arms is that they are lower, for the smaller dogs. Just above nose height is the general guideline. Too high, and they might block connection. You started out with them a bit too high (like at :09) but they got lower as you worked and ended up in a good place, maybe belly-button level 🙂 You don’t think you need to pump your opposite arm though – you were doing that at the end of the session a bit and that was causing her to look at you.
On the 180s at the beginning:
>>When I was trying to get the 180 or the wrap out of the tunnel, I got a few refusals (a couple are not included).>>
Most of those were due to you getting a little too far ahead and decelerating on the tunnel send, which created a turn on the tunnel exit. When you did a shorter lead out (so you could layer without having to decelerate) or you did not layer: no refusal questions 🙂
You were playing with different timing to get the 180s and wraps, so the best 180s were when you kept moving forward with a little decel. On the wraps, more decel worked better like at :38 and 1:13, but the reps at 1:33 and 1:44 were great! Those were just the right amount of decel and brake arm to get the turn. Be sure to connect to her eyes to cue the backside send to 6 at 1:36 and 1:40 rather than point forward (that was sending her to the front).
Tunnel exits looked great so did the sequence that added focus forward!! Especially 2:30 – 2:41!!! That was really fantastic.
>>. I didn’t intend to do a front cross on the very last rep for the wrap instead of the tunnel exercise since that sort of defeats the purpose of the exercise, but it was too hot to run it again>>
No worries! You got a nice turn there! And it was smart to take it and be finished, she worked beautifully! So we will keep getting you comfy with the brake arms and then sort out where to use them – she read them really well 🙂
Great job!
Tracy
