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Hi!
>>Everyone keeps telling me I have to be prepared for her to act like a BC, and I’m like, yeah, I don’t see it yet.>>
Ha! Nope, you’ll see the whippet shine through and that’s a great thing too! There are some amazing things that BWs can do in terms of powering out of turns which come from the whippet.
>> If she winds up in the middle of her parents’ ranges for weight, she will weigh pretty much the same as the terriers though (mine are 23-27 lb).>>
Yes, she’s likely to not weigh a lot. One of my whippet mixes is 15 inches tall and 13.5 lbs. And my male BorderWhippet is about 21 inches tall and weighs 32 lbs. My full whippet is 22 inches tall and weighs a whopping 28 pounds LOL!! So she might end up being a good height and very light.
>>I’ve done Rachel Pearson’s stimulus control stuff,
Super!!!!
>>(and why I kinda dislike the idea, but see that it’s useful) >>
Omg I totally relate. I have found that having a few powerful markers that I can use consistently helps for training. And in many of the other moments in life, the dogs read context so brilliantly that I don’t worry about it as much 🙂
>> I would use “good” as the marker if I wanted her to stay in position to be fed. >>
Excellent marker to have!
>>I guess I do have a “get it” cue for a thrown cookie, but I think I mostly use it when they are already looking at me?>>
That’s something to consider as you work out your marker system with her. I have a get it that means “that’s correct, focus forward because the reward will be out ahead” and it’s been great for getting the dogs to *not* look at me when I want forward moving behavior.
>>For the nose marker, I’ve been working on a chin target behavior with a Tupperware lid (to be able to teach a head flat on the floor trick) recently and wanted this to look different which is why I held it that way.>>
Smart!!! To make it look different – when you do the chin target, is the target in your palm and palm facing up (back of hand facing down)? If so, based on where this hand target builds to, we can turn your hand so the palm is perpendicular to the ground and extended away from you. If that’s still too similar looking to the chin target, let me know and we will take a different approach.
Tracy
Good morning! I love this video!!!
In terms of what you did:
Excellent pattern games to bring her arousal level and attentional state into the higher zone… then she was great with the volume dial, even with Misia in the ring running and tugging. Then back to patterns and into the snuffle mat, to bring the arousal level back down and decompress a bit (because she was going to get to work, so she didn’t need to stay in that high arousal level). Lu was fabulous!>There was some excitement in the middle of it all 😳🤣 but Lu handled it really well. I thought that would have terrified her but she was fine. >
That was GREAT and it is exactly why we do all of this resilience work: something very unexpected happened. Lu definitely noticed, but basically said “that was unexpected” and never lost engagement with you, didn’t get concerned about anything even with the loud crash or the very direct BC stalking LOL! None of the humans freaked out (good job humans) and so neither dog freaked out. You just carried on as if it was all completely normal.
That kind of experience will go a long way to helping her trial career because she can shrug off unexpected things, even if they might be startling. Love it!
It was also hilarious and Jen’s face made me laugh out loud LOL!!!!!!
Great job here!!
Tracy
Good morning!
>>I’m still working on a reliable “out” so we’ll see how that goes in the ring! There may just be 1 play session – lol. >>
That sounds pretty perfect, though!! And you can bring in 2 toys to help get the first one back 🙂
>I think I’m going to put her leash in my pocket when we start so I can leash her up and let her walk out on her own 4 feets at the end and I don’t have to pick her up. >
I like that better than trying to carry her out.
>I think if I do that, the leash runner may try & come get the leash, so I’ll pocket it like a hoarder.>
Right! And if she has not yet experienced leash runners getting in her space, then definitely hoard that leash LOL And at league, ask someone to act like a leash runner and judge and ring crew 🙂
On the video – great job with the tricks before starting! She was pumped up!
The way the pinwheel was set put the tunnel slightly off the line from the jump, so you got a little too close to 5 at :24 and 3:13 then pulled her off the tunnel when moving to your right to avoid running into the jump 🙂 Good job rewarding her, she was trying to sort out if you wanted the turn or straight line to the tunnel. Building in a small space is definitely hard, so you can use weave poles as jump bars to make it all fit easily!
She seemed to like killing the toy there! Fun reward LOL!! The out is not great yet, but the toy looked really rewarding so that is great (and the 2 toy option might work best, I am pretty sure it is legal in AKC :))
You didn’t get caught behind 5 as much on the 2nd run (1:55) so got the tunnel – the turn on 4 (pinwheel jump) was a little late, so she dropped the bar trying to adjust. I don’t think she needs you to go all the way o 4 with her, so you can send to 4 by hanging back closer to the landing of 3, which will also put you on a better lateral/parallel line to the 5 jump and tunnel, making the blind even easier at the end.
At 4:26 you had the best line past 5 (didn’t get caught deep there and have to pull away from it) so her line to the tunnel was spot on! Then you had excellent hustle to do the blind and get big connection to show her the last 2 jumps. YAY!!!!!
The RC at the end went well in terms of getting her to turn to her left – isn’t that her harder direction? Super!!! And on the very last one, you had much better connection to her after the RC so she found the jump. Yay! When you get behind her, you don’t need an arm pointing forward at all – just run towards the next jump and look at her, which all turns your shoulders to the line you want.
>>I’ll keep you posted tomorrow and will send video!!!>
Yes please! I will be clutching my phone all day to check on how it goes!!
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
What a great update!!!! He looked awesome working through those challenges! A lot of the lines on this sequence (like sending to jump 1 and into the pinwheel) had him having to completely ignore the distractions in front of him, and I was super proud of him because he was excellent!
I can hear the other dogs in the video and at the beginning, we can see how it was a little hard for him… but you got out the water sprayer and BOOM! Volume dial!! He was ready to roll. You can add tricks there – ask him to do something easy and fun there to get the spray 🙂
Jumping towards the other dogs was harder so you can use your motion by sending him away over the jump then you immediately start running towards the next line.
On the 2nd run starting at about 2:00, you sent to the jump and moved away sooner so he really drove the line with you. The RC at the end worked great because he was flying so getting ahead for the BC was not going to happen 🙂 You mentioned paying too much attention to him rather than drive for the blind – but at this point, I think you were giving him great connection on course and so which cross you use is less important. He thrives with your connection!
At 4:15 you sent more to the pinwheel jump so you were more laterally away from the tunnel at the end – which made the blind easy to get to. You nailed it and showed great connection at the end! You also got the FC there at the very end, but I think the BC is a better option because it keeps you moving further ahead without having to rotate your feet.
One thing to do for the next session: you can put your magic reward box and the water sprayer together (so he can also have the spray reward) and place them so they are not always at the last jump. He is very smart and I don’t want him to think he should drive the line towards where the reward is, simply because he sees it 🙂
Then if he can ignore the magic treat box and sprayer being placed outside the ring and not on the line? Pick a simple easy sequence and do it without any treats in your hands or pockets 🙂 It should be a really short sequence, 3 or 4 obstacles at most, because working with all of the reward outside the ring is HARD!!! But he seems ready for that challenge 🙂
>>Today was Scent Work. He was amazing. >>
This fantastic! I love how you supported him with the pattern games and how he was able to relax and get to work in the environment. The Q is a nice bonus, but the lovely rehearsals and smooth transitions into the search area will set you up for many more successes and Qs in the future. Great job here!!!
Tracy
Good morning!
>>I definitely see now that you pointed it out that he was reading blind cross yet again. Doh!!>
Yes, young dogs are SO HONEST about trying to read every single thing we do, good pups. For the youngsters, we don’t want to run fast, we want to run connected as the top priority. If I need to cue extension but I run fast and drop connection? The dogs can’t read the cues. So running closer to the lines (so I don’t have to decel) but with big connection really helps.
He did really well with the Empty Hands concept!
>>I really thought I was staying connected this time without accidentally cueing a blind cross and he still missed the pinwheel jump. >>
This is where revisiting the fast moving lazy game will help. Placement of reinforcement is going to be key to help get this commitment – getting rewards thrown to the landing side of the jump as you move away. Yes, I will bug you to be perfect with your connection. But also yes – it is nearly impossible to be perfect, so revisiting the lazy game of jogging around and tossing rewards will bridge the gap between perfect connection and getting commitment to the jump when we are not so perfect 🙂
For example – at :34, you were connected for a few steps into the pinwheel then you arm came up and you turned away too early (slight disconnection). Getting closer and jogging past it and throwing a reward will help pump up the commitment.
But also what you do after a blooper like that can help pump up commitment: since he has the level of handler focus that he can pull off a jump even when he is within a couple of feet of it (probably due to a lot of reward coming from your hand or near you lately) – don’t stop and reward, keep going by cueing the next jump and continuing, then throwing the reward somewhere on the line. At :35 you saw him pass the jump, then in that moment stopped and delivered a reward from your hand. So while we are not going to punish him or ‘fix’ it by going back… it is entirely possible that stopping right then to reward can also reward missing the jump.
I try to get everyone to keep going and reward somewhere else on the line (unless something has gone so wrong there is no way to keep going, then yes, reward for effort LOL!!) So in this case, you can give a bigger cue to the next jump and reward that, so almost all reward are paired with taking the jump.
You kept going better at 2:22 ad he took it at 2:29 – you dd reward it, but it was from your hands and for coming into you, because the toy was in your pocket.
So for game plan: he did really well with empty hands, so you can use it in spots where the handling is simple and it is ok to pull it out and reward near you. For anything he has trouble with in terms of commitment (darned pinwheels!) then you wil want to run with a toy in your hand so you can reward him really quickly by throwing the reward ahead of him on the line with a get it marker.
Using the snuffle mat worked great here! He was able to work for a really nice long session and he finished successfully and with great engagement!
>>I did the weaves because I know he uses his brain a bit more for that and wanted to see how he’d fare after working, decompressing, then trying them. >>
I thought he did great!!
>>So for the first part with the tunnel where I was trying Empty Hands, I had thrown a treat twice two different times as a distraction while I sneakily loaded the ball back into my jacket. >>
You don’t need to sneak it into your jacket, he can see you do it – he can smell it in your jacket so he knows it is there even if he didn’t see it 🙂 Th empty hands visual is a small step between reward in your hand and reward outside the ring.
>It was a big non-crumbly treat so there should not have been any left but he sure seems to think there was. Maybe I should NOT do that in the future (throwing a treat directly on the ground there)? What do you think?>
There probably was a pool of scent there, or maybe a little crumble from when he chewed it. At this stage, I trust the dogs because they are near wrong when they insist there is a treat on the ground LOL!! So you can help him find it or help him ignore it by being like “DUDE I HAVE A BETTER ONE!”. You can totally throw treats sometimes, because it will also help him run past pools of scent on the ground which is something he will encounter in classes and trials.
>>He seemed a little confused by it but figured me out and got snacks so it ended okay. But was that too weird? Should I not have done it there?>>
I think maybe he got confused because you were so far away? He might have been wondering if you were still working or if you were resetting for something and he was on his own time? So it is fine to do and he got snacks, but you can stick closer to see if that makes it clearer to him.
>>so was thinking about trying to make putting the leash over his head into a rewarding game.>>
I totally love getting them to shove their heads through a leash! I have a video somewhere but can’t find it… maybe more caffeine will help me find it 🙂
But the easiest thing to do it get a leash that is like a French martingale (expandable but with a limited slip like what we use with the pointy headed sighthounds LOL). You can make a huge expanded opening and basically start by holding it open in front of him and luring his head through it a few times: follow the cookie through the loops, feeding him, then jackpot when the loop lands around his neck. It is pretty easy to go from luring to start it, to getting him to offering putting his nose through for the cookie, then offering more and more of his head until he shoves his head into it.
I do this as a lifestyle game daily with the youngsters and even single time they are getting the leash on. so when the dogs are adult, I just hold it open and they shove their heads through without needing to see the cookie 🙂
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Good morning! Sounds like her NY adventure is going really well 🙂
>Video is an experiment with her tug toy after a nap. I wanted to see if she could tug and then segue to wrapping a tree as pseudo-agility. >
She was great! Came out tugging like a wild woman, and wrapped the tree really well! Has she seen tree wrapping before, or was this the first time?
>>Answer today seems to be good for 2 reps with the tug and then needed a decompression.>>
Yes – tugging and running has an ‘expensive’ energy cost: lots of glucose and oxygen burned! So she had about 90 seconds in her and then it was harder especially if the info was not perfectly clear. And 90 seconds is a long time – it can be 3.5 novice jumpers runs!! So you can plan for that – set a timer for 30 seconds, get the tugging and maybe one tree wrap and then be done. One hit wonder! It doesn’t matter if it looks great and it looks like she can do more… Resist! LOL! Because you will want to end the session with the more optimized arousal state and not with the jumping up. Then you can decompress and maybe come back to it later on. That way her body has a chance to reset and is more ready for more reps later.
Nice work here!
TracyGood morning!
AND I also track with this puppy. He’s got GREAT article indications for tracking; I’m very happy with them. (lie down, nose on article.) But yesterday I took him tracking, and with several fabric articles, he went up to them, put a foot on and LOOKED AT ME! I was perplexed–he hasn’t been doing that. Then I remembered this foot target game……even though I don’t use this pleather-like bag as a tracking article, he must be confusing the two concepts. >>
Yes, I can see his point that the two are similar, and the foot target/eye contact is a ‘cheap’ behavior (easier to do) than the lie down/nose on article behavior.
>>The context should be very different (hint: when wearing a harness and line, you’re tracking!), but apparently they seem close enough for him. >>
It is entirely possible that in that moment, his brain is not processing the harness or line so it doesn’t not help with context cues. Teenage brains can prioritize things differently than puppy brains or adult brains 🙂
>>I’ll have to keep working to show him the difference. Any ideas along these lines would be helpful !>>
I think at this stage, it is useful feedback from him that it is too similar, and we don’t want to work on it as a discrimination at this stage (that can be frustrating for him). So, change the prop for this class. What can you use that is absolutely nothing like a tracking article? A book? A shoe? Someone in the very first edition of this class used a box of wine LOL so you can be entirely creative with what the prop is 🙂 The prop gets faded out so exactly what you use is not that important, whereas I think tracking articles ARE important – so we can painting the clarity of the articles and do something else for the prop.
Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Good morning!!
These sessions look great! I am excited about his back and forth between food and toys. He is super engaged and confident: LOVE IT!!!Great job transitioning into the target from the play: you were quick and ready to nail that first interaction (many of us miss that because we are taking a moment to get the treats out).
He is very smart and also very quick – so with those fast feet of his, you don’t need both the ‘yes’ and the ‘get it’. You can drop the ‘yes’ in this situation and just stick with ‘get it’ because the ‘get it’ says both “yes you are correct” and also “I am tossing the treat ahead of you”. You can mark with ‘get it’ and throw, which will also help develop some serious forward focus on lines because that is a HOT TOPIC nowadays in course design LOL!!
His nose targeting is going well too – since I am thinking of markers – you were using ‘good’ consistently here – is ‘good’ a cookie-from-hand marker? If so, you can drop the ‘yes’ and only use ‘good’ (he is so quick that you don’t really have time to spit out a lot of markers in shaping LOL!). Or, you can use ‘yes’ as your food-from-hand marker and drop the good 🙂
Since this will eventually become a behavior we need when you are standing (it is not actually a true hand touch, eventually :)) we might consider getting him to touch something that extends your arm, so you don’t have to bend all the way down when you are standing or moving. It can be something like the end of a wooden spoon or a spatula to replace the target in your hand. The true hand touch can be to just your hand, because you can bend down for that. Let me know if that makes sense or if I need more coffee 🙂 Great job here! I am looking forward to seeing more of him!
TracyGood morning! And welcome! She Is adorable 🙂 And yes, I am partial to blue merle BWs 🙂
>I’m working Beat, my 4 month old Border Whippet (affectionately known as Bippety Beat). She’s my first non-terrier agility dog as I’ve run JRT’s and Rat Terriers for almost 20 years. >
She’s lovely!! And I love her name 🙂 Even though she is half BC, we generally find the BorderWhippets train more like sighthounds. Which means they are brilliant 🙂 of course! The biggest difference I see in training a sighthound versus the terriers or the herding dogs is that with the sighthounds, you might not “see” a lot of the learning happening in the session.
What I mean by that is they might not really produce the behavior we are going for in that session. It might be a ‘meh’ session that leaves you banging your head on the wall…. But in fact that ARE learning. Sighthounds are the most incredible latent learners I have ever seen. They can take what we have shown them, sleep on it for a day or two – then they come back knowing what we taught them and somehow magically knowing the next 3 steps. It is wild (in the best way :))
I mention this latent learning ability because while all dogs do it, sighthounds take it to a whole new level. I don’t want you to freak out like I did at first LOL!! Before I got my BW, I had terriers (Ratties, JRT mix :)) and herding dogs so it was a little weird at first to end a session without feeling that I made a lot of progress (bad for the ego LOL!!) but sighthounds (like terriers) don’t want to do 10,000 reps. And with my first BW, it absolutely blew my mind how well he would come back completely knowing the behavior and retaining it. Incredible!
>The goal was to try a “big dog” but she may be tracking to be no bigger than my Ratties.>
Interesting!! Is she from a BC x Whippet breeding, or are both parents BWs? She might have a growth spurt a little later on. But even if she doesn’t get very tall, she is going to stride like a big dog and you are going to love how she covers ground on course. Plus, the BWs are brilliant turning dogs too. I am excited for you!
Great job on your foot target video! You were paying close attention to your mechanics and timing and that was lovely! And I really loved how you split the behavior to build it up to getting her to touch the target, then how you broke off to play tug (to keep arousal nice and high) while hiding the target so there was no confusion. And nice transition back to the targeting: excellent! You’ve got terrific training chops 🙂
Short, fast, fun session: so lovely! One suggestion to add here is a marker to replace the ‘yes’. You were tossing the treats, so you can add in a marker that tells her simultaneously that she was correct and that the reward is being tossed out ahead of her. I use “get it” for that, which turns into a super useful marker on course, plus helps keep them from looking at us when watching for the reward delivery so we can build more complex behaviors easily.
On the hand target video – I love how she was standing in a nice stack at the beginning so I could ooh and ah over her! She’s going to be a fast powerful dog!
She did really well with the targeting! She might give a slightly stronger nose bop to it if you hold it flat in your palm (but we don’t need her to slam her head into it LOL). And you can use your get it marker here too – she was looking at you a bit, probably to sort out where the food would be and the get it will help her look at the target then for the reward.
One thing I also really like in both videos is how you get the toy out of her mouth – she is still learning her out cue so you are basically trading for a treat, which makes is smooth and happy, no conflict, no fighting with her over the toy. I love it!!!!
Well done here! I am excited to see more!!!
TracyGood morning! And welcome 🙂 She is adorable! It looks like she likes treats and likes toys and likes offering behavior: so fun!!!!
>>The last thing we trainee was pick things up in the mouth so there was some residual from that which made me laugh.>>
Yes, they always remind us of the other things we have trained 🙂 So you can play with this so it is feet-only by elevating it so it is more of a step up onto it, or making it heavy by putting something in it (so it is not easily picked up), or by marking sooner, so it is more about the movement towards it with feet not mouth. Or all of the above 🙂
One thing that might make it even easier is that you don’t need to click and then say get it. The get it marker is both the click and the location of the reward, so you won’t get any looking up at you (which happens after the click) and she will look to where the reward is more (and will really strengthen the ‘get it’ which is such a useful marker!!)
Great job here! I am excited to see more!!
Tracy
Good morning!
>Well, the world is burning and I had to take the day off to avoid potentially murdering anyone at my male-dominated office. This is after spending Wednesday & Thursday in pretty much a fugue state. 🙁 I hope you’re hanging in there – thank goodness for dogs.>>
Sending thoughts of strength!!! I am currently surviving because I stripped all social media off my phone (amazing how many times I reach for it to look at stupid social media) and all news outlets off the phone too. And now I am parked in a field at a 4 day flyball seminar with my puppy, so my mind is completely dissociated from the dumpster fire of the world. Sigh. But the puppy did spectacular things yesterday and his ability to focus and DO THE THING while other dogs are running and in front of a crowd at only 9 months old? Super happy-making. And Contraband got to race against the fastest dog in North America and he thought it was the Best.Day.Ever. (Also, flyball people have a lot of wine and snacks.)
Looking at the Jimster’s videos:
He is doing so well!!!!!!!! It is like these young dog know that we humans needed a pick-me-up this week.The play before the first sequence looked good! You can set him up a little further from jump 1 so he can stride into it more powerfully.
One spot to be more connected is on the send to 4 at 1:01 (don’t point forward ahead of him because it turns your shoulders away from the line – he saved your butt there :)) He didn’t save you at 1:48 because you had turned away a lot. So keep your hand pointing to his nose as you send. Your hand can travel with his nose and end up pointing forward as he passes you, but if you hand points to the jump while he is still behind you then the send info gets a bit muddy. This is basically what you did at 2:36 and it was great!!
He is responding really well to the skip cues (he missed it at 1:55 because it was not clear in terms of line of motion after you fixed the send to 4)
I don’t think you need to turn your shoulders away that much, as it creates too much pull off the line. You can cue the turn on the jump before the tunnel (his name is probably all you need), then let him see a little turn to the line you want and show him your threadle arm, and keep the threadle arm up as you stay connected and move to the tunnel threadle entry.
This should make it easier to handle without as much pull and push on the line.2nd video: It is really fun to see the teamwork blossoming here! Great connection throughout – nice connection on the send to the pinwheel jump and then excellent use of your ‘left’ verbal cue and shoulder turn to get him to turn beautifully to the jump and not take the tunnel! YAY!!!
3rd video:
He is getting so good at his forward focus on the first jump! That did not take him long to learn at all! Super!The first run was almost perfect – your cues through the pinwheel and to the tunnel and then through the pinwheel to the left turn was beautifully connected and well timed. The 2nd run had a little less connection on the pinwheel jump so he didn’t take it first time through but you were perfect at 1:53 and he got it.
The skip cue at :54 were late in that he didn’t know he was turning and your motion was very forward
You gave a bigger earlier pull at 2:01 so he got it – but you can add in a turn cue on the jump before the tunnel threadle so he is more ready for the threadle cues (and then you won’t have to pull as much).The timing of the left cue is when he lands from the pinwheel jump, and that is perfect. So the turn cue before the threadle (probably just his name, because it is not a tight left turn) should be at about the same time, then you can start the tunnel threadle cue before takeoff.
The RR game went well! You had the toy on the ground here and he was able to move away from it pretty easily. Yes, try not to call him but he was fine without that too. You can add in having him do things before he gets the marker to go back to it.
In this session, you were saying “let’s go get it” which kind of merges 2 markers. “Get it” would be great for a placed reward in a training session. And let’s go works best for when you are leaving the toy completely outside the ring, on a table or something – I think he is ready to see that and you can add in moving away, doing tricks, even lining up and taking a jump.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Good morning!
I think you will have fun on Lori’s courses! They are very flowing for the youngsters with lots of tunnels 🙂
Looking at the videos:
For the RR with the toy – I agree that is great that the toy has higher value!! To help him, you can put it up on something higher so it is a bit more out of the picture Since the toy drive has really blossomed, you can make it really easy for him by putting it further away 🙂What is your toy marker word (it can be the same as food) – yo were saying “get your toy” which could sound a lot like “get it” for the thrown reward on course, so you can use something more distinct like “toy!” Or the same marker you use for food. The marker doesn’t indicate food or toy, it indicates that you will now be heading to the reward station for the reward 🙂
Looking at the tunnel sequence:
>>I think his attention was divided too because when I came out to move the stuff around I saw that a rabbit had been killed in the agility ring and there were…ahem…small remnants I had to clean up first.>
Oh dear, that would indeed be challenging!! Doing one rep was good because he got exposure to working in a highly distracting environment. Even after sniffing around, the distraction of dead rabbit parts was probably really hard! But he was able to engage with the lotus ball really well! And he ran the full sequence really well!! He read the difference in the 3 cues (straight, no tunnel, tunnel threadle) brilliantly!
In the 3 spots where he had a question on what to do on the jump, he was actually getting blind cross info (you looked forward, turned your shoulders forward, which looked like the beginning of a blind) so he was correctly changing sides. In 2 of the spots you were able to reconnect quickly enough to get him back to the jump (1:11 and 1:30 – you can see the accidental blind really clearly at 1:30!) At 1:18 he didn’t get the info in time so he tried but picked up the other side of the jump.
So remember not to just run fast – run connected and close to the lines on these pinwheels.
And getting success with dead rabbit distractions and ending on one rep was GREAT dog training!
Empty Hands looked great! He was definitely like “why are your hands empty” at first but then he got into it because you had some much energy, Then a nice simple blast up the line was perfect. He did great on both! You can add the empty hands concept into the other sequences, sometimes running with both hands empty to add that challenge in there too. I think he will be fine with it.
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning! I am think this went really well! The only real questions were handler timing questions which is exactly what we want with a young fast dog.
I think most of it went perfectly: Fabulous connection! Her jumping is looking good!!! There was one bar down when you did a big decel at 3:45 so she was preparing to turn, then you sent her ahead to the tunnel so she tried to adjust over the bar (unsuccessfully). Keep moving in that situation 🙂
She is driving for her jumps, digging in to get them even if you were a little late, and not running past. Big happy dance!
The exit line connection back to her after the blind at :34 was great , that was really a super strong moment!
Loved your big rewarding engagement after you both rocked the second run!!!
There were 2 spots that needed some timing sorted out:
The turn 3 to 4 without going straight was a spot where she read you perfectly – if you were facing forward as she took off for 3? She went straight. Trust me that you will LOVE that skill when you begin the big fancy layering craziness of the high level international stuff!!!!
When you turned to 4 before she took off for 4? She turned too.
The trick to that timing is that she needs to know that you would like a turn on 3, and that info needs to happen before she needs to make a takeoff position. Ideally, that happens as she exits the tunnel. That is when you can start to deliver the turn cues for 3 – that would include bit of decel in this situation, shoulder turn, and for her, a brake arm (both hands up while shoulders turn away) is a valid addition.
And you can’t just say “jump”, because, well, there are 4 possibilities and they are all jumps 🙂 So as you deliver the physical cues, you can be saying “left” or her name softly.
That will look radically different from the forward-facing acceleration where she was correctly running straight. You don’t need to accelerate to get close to jump 4 because that looks like a straight line cue.
When you had success, you had the shoulder turns earlier so she say it just before takeoff. Getting them even soon will help guarantee success 🙂
I got photos of all that! Check it out here:
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1DeqKdcde0oz0zNLVUx1Oha28ki9TYLFauRYiyKXvuqc/edit?usp=sharingThe other spot that was hard for the timing was the RC at the end.
For the RC setup – one thing to add is to call her and give her a turn cue before she enters the tunnel (1:23) Good rewarding on that first RC rep because she didn’t know there was a turn and no physical cue like the blind to create it. If she gets a strong turn cue before entering the tunnel, setting up the RC will be easier.
The other thing to add is getting closer to the RC diagonal, which takes you to the center of the bar of the RC jump.
At 1:54 – you had decel and then got onto the diagonal, but it was all the way out on the left turn wrap wing. She started to turn left then continued straight trying to sort out your acceleration
At the end, you did get on the RC diagonal and showed pressure to the center of the bar. You were a little far from it, so she didn’t read it til after takeoff (but then she got it and kept the bar up! Yay!!). Your switch verbal really helped too! I put screen shots into the slideshow of those too 🙂
To set the RC, you can use your position earlier on the sequence to get to a great RC spot here too: rather than get close to 5 then try to get to the RC diagonal, you can stay closer to 3! Send her away to 4, 5, 6 a you drive on a parallel line to the tunnel exit. That way as she exits the tunnel, you are able to be much closer to the RC diagonal to the center of the bar so she can see the info sooner.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Hi!
>>this weekend we have a 1 ring trial that is outdoors that I signed her up for FEO on Sunday (day 2) of the trial. The date arrived so fast! EEEEEKKKKKK!
Should I do it!?>>See how she feels about the trial site. And see if she is interested in any toy there. And then decide 🙂 you can always do a quick zip in and out with the toy, even if it is not her total favorite thing yet 🙂
>> My plan is to (no startline) take off her leash, do a little volume dial and just run with her over a few jumps & play play play. Hopefully the course has the tunnel positioned where we can get to it too.>>
Perfect!!!
>> I have new fur bungee toys that are scheduled to arrive tonight for her. Should I surprise her with it in the ring or let her see the toys ahead of time so I know she likes them?>>
Do a quick fun test to see if she has a new favorite toy and then save them for the ring.
>>Here is Bazinga practicing Remote reinforcement. >>
This looked awesome!!! She was fast and happy and engaged. You can totally do this at the practice jump too!
>> and to the trial site on Saturday.>>
Don’t try to cram or anything 🙂 just maybe try a little at the site and then make it all about play 🙂
About the reward prediction errors:
>>Do you think if I always give her a different, awesome treat before we go in the ring that it may help her want to go in the ring?>>
Yes! That can totally work, especially the first few times. Then it becomes the norm 🙂 so the variety of treats will be highly motivating for rehearsing not just dopamine spikes 🙂 but more importantly, you’ll see that the conditioned response changes into a super positive one, meaning the motivation builds because she is so pumped up to be in the ring 🙂
Let me know if that makes sense! And keep me posted about how this weekend goes!!Tracy
