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Good morning! All the West Coast folks were talking about the wind!
I think this session went super well – lots of success with the leash and remote reinforcement and the mini sequences. And I think it was great to use food too – it is high value for her and also, leash-then-food is exactly what she will see at the end of an agility run at a trial.
Yes, leashing and unleashing in high arousal is part of the puzzle for a lot of dogs. I am happy to find a competition leash that works for them in terms of their preferences for getting it on and off. I had one made for the whippet so it can unclip and fall away at the beginning, then at the end of the run he could slide his pointy head through. He now loves his leash, so there is an added toy in the ring.
She did well with the leash tugging! It opens up a whole new world of shopping!!! And she was fantastic about engaging when the leash comes off. I love how easily that is going to become a cue for her to look at you and be ready to work when that leash comes off.
It also opens up a whole new world of remote reinforcement – so continue to be sure that the leash is laying around a lot and you don’t always cue her to go to it, so she doesn’t anticipate going it 🙂 I thought you were really good about sometimes marking to go to the leash, sometimes praising and not sending her to it immediately, etc. That way it does not become a target, but it can remain a strong motivator.
She was highly successful and I do think it was providing a little challenge as a toy behind her, which is also great for her remote reinforcement understanding. At 2:44 you can see her take a moment to do the full body shake, which as you know if often a reset or small stress response. Nothing to worry about because she did great, but interesting to observe that it was a little hard!
While I am thinking of it – are there any classes or seminars you can take her too? The goal would be to create more positive experiences in different places. It is hard to find appropriate young dog seminars because so many of them are “triple spinning backside layer layer threadle threadle wrap wrap wrap” which really is NOT what I want the baby dogs to be doing. When I go to seminars, I put my youngsters in a level or two below what I think they can actually do, so they can enjoy fast & fun sequences while working through the challenges of being in a new environment.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Good morning!
I hear the winds were BAD!!! I am glad he was unaffected by it!
He looked great in this little sequence, good boy!!!! Yes, there is more speed there but he was thinking A LOT – I prefer the thoughtful approach with these youngsters. As he get more experienced, his speed will really blossom.
Using the magic box 😁 in training is great! It adds a predictability to reinforcement that will help at trials. And to help build speed – you can say your marker to go back to the magic box at varying points in the run. A variable schedule is a powerful motivator and can maximize speed throughout the run! So you can do it after 2 obstacles, 10 obstacles, 3 obstacles, 12 obstacles, etc – at any point (especially over jumps because we humans don’t reward them enough), say the marker and run to the magic box 🙂
How did he do with the games before & after the sequences?
Great job here!
TracyWelcome!!!!!! Spotlight is a cool little dude 🙂 I know you’ve already been doing fun stuff with him, so we can add higher level crazy stuff to play with to!
Have fun!
TracyHello and welcome!!!
How has it been 4 years since Sly’s class, when he is still a puppy? LOL!!! Time moves too fast!!!
And I am excited to meet Millie 🙂 She sounds fun!!! We have had 3 or 4 Berners come through in the past 2 years and they’ve all be so fun!! Small and sporty and smart and FAST!!!!Tracy
That’s funny!!! I am glad you got less licking 🙂 The target will be faded fairly quickly, so I don’t think he will be into licking it. For the regular hand target, you can try holding it a little higher with your palm facing downwards, so he has to lift his chin a little to target (but don’t hold it so high that he has to lift his feet).
Keep me posted!
TracyHi! Thanks for the class video!
Agility in dirt is definitely more distracting! I was cool to see him get more engaged and focused as you started the patterns at the beginning!
He is faster here than at home – probably because he was more pumped up! He was also resilient to handler bloopers 🙂 like at 1:29 when he was not sure which end of the tunnel to go into so he found your face 😁 then went into the tunnel. No sniffing or concern, just continuing to work the course. Yay!
Pattern games in the bleachers looked strong! There were some good distractions in terms of smells, visuals, noises – he did great!
>>When we got to our 2nd run on the standard side, he was having himself a ball. >>
I love how he instructor was loving him up before his run on the standard side then he ignored her when it was time to get to work 🙂
Because he was zipping around offering obstacles on the way to the start, you can either keep him on leash til you get there, or have him do tricks as you move to the jump – we want him to be feeling really good but also don’t want the habit of taking obstacles when the leash comes off 🙂
I thought he was actually spot on in his focus and reading of the handling. It is harder to feel it in the moment and it is easy to see on video 🙂 so if he goes past something or off course, just go with it, reward, then reset somewhere earlier in the course so you can show him the handling with more clarity.
For example, at 3:25 he didn’t take the jump before the teeter. There was a big break in connection so he can of the line (might have looked like the beginning of a blind) so he came of the line to you. Plus, with the big visuals of the dog walk and tunnel behind you, it makes sense that he might have expected a blind to them when you turned forward. But then when you showed connection and cued the teeter, he got right on it. Good boy!
>>I probably should have handled the teeter differently, ie not run, >>
I thought it was the right thing to do and good job rewarding his passionate teeter performance, especially after fixing the line to it. It was not quite criteria but he was trying really hard to nail it and was not quite balanced enough, kind of landing himself in the dirt which probably didn’t feel great. But he drove up the board brilliantly! And didn’t do it again, so it was good to reward it as a “great try, dude” moment.
The end of the sequence here had some questions –
You had another disconnect at 4:18 which he read as a blind and sped over to the frame (which is also really high value, probably :))When you reset him at 4:26, the handling did show the line to the frame (he would need a collection cue to turn tight on the jump before it in order to not take the line to the frame) so he was correct there.
Bearing in mind how hard his brain was working to tune out the distractions and also read the handling cues, I think it is fine to assume an error on course is handling-based not pug-based LOL!! So you can reward the next obstacle, then reset the sequence by putting yourself ahead of him so he can see the clearer handling. At 4:35 you were a little behind and he was correct to read that as a line to the tunnel.
It is all hard to feel in the moment when running the young dogs but video tells us 🙂 so you can totally assume errors are yours and not his, and reward the line he ends up on before going back to reset it with clearer info. And if we look at the video and decide that nope, it was actually *his* error? Then one or two extra cookies are no big deal 🙂 and won’t build up any unwanted behavior. But stopping or withholding reward when it is our error can cause frustration, which might show up as slowing down, engaging with distractions etc – which we don’t want because he is doing awesome here!!!
Great job! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Hi!
One more thought about the surprise factor (reward prediction errors) and learning – I can better explain by thoughts on how to approach training by saying that learning happens through the reward prediction errors and dopamine coding… and the rehearsal where there are no RPEs but there are good rehearsals and excellent motivators also produce learning, but in a different way: specifically in forming stronger neural pathways and networks, and classical conditioning. That is why rehearsals are so incredibly valuable, even if there are no reward prediction errors that produce dopamine spikes and coding.
Let me know if that makes sense 🙂
>>so was thinking train fusion second so put scent on after traned IN Synch or put in plastic sealed bag and pull out when train.
>Yes, that might be the best bet but also, the scent does not have to be on you – it can be placed near or in the training area in the beginning stages. Having it on you might muddy the water at first and you can make it more specific to certain memories if it is in the proximity and not on you. I am not sure that having it in a sealed plastic bag is enough to conceal the scent – you might need to ask folks who do scent work how they conceal the scent when not in use.
Also, having it *not* on you will be useful for In Synch, and if you ever do scent pairing with her you can use a different scent.
Another option is to only use a specific food reward when doing scent memory pairing – something with a distinct scent that only gets used in conjunction with that training. Smoked salmon is a good example. Will it work? I don’t know but it will be fun to play with!
On the first video:
The line up between your feet is going well in terms of getting into position. She did best with holding the stay when you stepped away slowly 🙂
The pattern games are going well. She did a great job with find your face – rather than start it from the stationary up and down game, start it from the back and forth game where you are both moving (it will be a game on course where you are both moving so you will want to start that from the beginning here). One other thing to remember that she does not have to come in front of you, so be sure to peripherally keep half an eyeball on her so you can see when she patiently looks at you even if she it as your side or behind you.
On the 2nd video:
>>The toy plus a jump was harder and took ages to get a toy release.>>
Yes, the jump was harder because the conditioned response there does not involve the line up between your feet yet. So you can do the line up with something less stimulating than a jump – maybe a wing, or maybe some object that is not even related to agility. When she can do that, you can add back a jump but be further from it so that it is easier.
When arousal is higher, remember to trade the toy for a treat immediately after saying the release cue. That will help make getting the toy back more automatic and faster, plus it helps with arousal regulation.
>But then had trouble settling her again – miscommunication as to whether she was to take the jump or not>
Yes, she was confused about what to do with the line up because it was new and very close to the jump, then when she offered the sit and was wrong, she got frustrated and was jumping up.
Using the food lure for the line up was useful! That should be the first priority in new situations.
Separately from a jump, you will also want to work on the food lure for the line up with the toy in your hand.
Then as you put it all together (line up, toy, jump) starting further from the jump will really help.
One more thought:
If she is leaping up to face-level during the pattern game, delay the next reward til she is fully on the ground and standing still for a few second. We don’t want her version of offering engagement in the pattern game to include leaping up to your face. Think of it as building in arousal regulation to the pattern game, not just orienting towards you.
Great job here!
Tracy
Hello and welcome! He is lovely!!! Nice job jumping in with the pre-games 🙂
He did great here with his foot target! Only one suggestion: Try to stand still the whole time – when you were moving, he was drawn to you so didn’t target as well as he did when you were stationary. To change positions, you can do it as he is getting a cookie (and pick up the prop to relocate it and yourself) so then while he is offering behavior, you are not moving.
Hand targeting is going well too! It was hard to see where you were looking, so you can look at the target if you were not already doing so 🙂
Great job here!!! Off to a great start!
Tracy
Hello and welcome! She is adorable and I love her name!!!!! Her hello at the end was so cute 🙂
She did great with both games here! She had good hits to the foot target and was able to nose touch the post it note 🙂 Easy peasy!
>> She was sure she was suppose to do something more than put her feet on the bag and she was pretty sure I wanted her to hold the post-it note in her mouth. Always my problem solver!>>
Yes! Sometimes when things are simple, the pups add some complexity LOL!!! So you can do a few reps of the really simply behavior, then change something so she doesn’t start to freestyle 🙂 In this case, you can change your position: for the foot target, you can move to being in a chair. And when that goes well, you can move to standing up. For the nose target, you can do the same (sitting in a chair then move to standing up) – and have the post it note in the palm of your hand and have it outstretched away from you (but low enough that she doesn’t have to jump up for it). That will get us closer to the actual use for in the class too 🙂
Great job here!
Tracy
Hi!
>>Do some vol dial ringside during all the commotion on Friday. Enter JWW sat (evening and will be quieter). And then go back to day 1 stuff on day 3.>>
That sounds like a good plan!
>>I won’t be doing uki until Jan/feb.
That sounds good – you can enter more classes and have more options for how you approach each one, in terms of how you use the toy.
>Playing with her and a tug is hard. She wants to bite near my hands. I tried to show you a bit on the video. >
She grabs it more in the middle when the toy is swooshing along the ground – when it was a little higher and not moving as much, she definitely was up by your hand: maybe that is a way of making it move again 🙂
>The place she does not do that is a hollee roller but if I attach something to it she does.>
Have you ever seen the ginormous hollee rollers? She could probably fit inside of it 🤣 but it would be great for tugging! You can also stuff a fur toy or something inside of it for more tugging opens.
>You know she takes forever to chew her food etc etc.>
For real! You could give her an air cookie and she would still chew it 🙂
>So we did 3 things remote food first. She had exposure to this before so we started further along. I did decide my word was going to be reward.>
The RR with cookies on a chair went well, and so did the session with the toy! She had lovely responses to all the cues, and you were consistent with your reward marker.
Jumping on the chair was hilarious in the cookie session! Nothing else was happening in that moment, so……. LOL!
You can add in the leash for all of this to simulate what will happen at a trial:
Leash on to move away from the treats, leash off and getting tossed away before/during/after some tricks…. Then leash back on before you say the reward word (AKC rules and such :)) So if I have to get the leash back on, I finish the run, praise (which is NOT a cue to go get the treats), say something like “where is your leash?”, go get it, put it on, then the reward marker.You can see if she will tug on a leash, if you have a fun furry one! Leash tugging is widely accepted and it is basically a toy in the ring 🙂
Find My Face on a little sequence also went well:
>>I did a soft turn set up since I had AKC on the brain.>
If she is going to be in AKC, then this soft turn is exactly what she needs to see 🙂
I think she did a great job here! She continued on the line when you were disconnected and that is a fabulous bonus! You could see her thinking hard (“um, human, a little more info please??”) but that is fine because she then got the big rewards for staying in the game. So you can show her this sometimes in a bigger sequence – it is not something she needs to see a lot of, as long as it is always a great experience when it happens 🙂
Great job!
TracyYes, that is an awkward stage!!! Hopefully some good seminars or clinics come along… If not, no worries! Home schooled dogs do great too!
T
Perfect! And it gets Lu into the mode of “we get in the car and go to the agility place” to help her body acclimate to the travel. It might not seem like a lot, but it really can be for adolescent dogs. Are there any Lu-Level classes coming up? Or seminars? I always put my youngsters into classes or seminars that are one or two steps below what they can actually do, so I can make it a great time for them without stressing any of us LOL!
>>16 select Speedstakes for the Dec trial for NFC>>
Yay! This is on turf? If she is not turf-experienced, can you get her into a class or ring rental there? We don’t want her to have to think about a new surface when asking her to also think about all the other things at a trial.
Tracy
Good morning! Congrats on a great debut!!!!!!
She did great in a busy outdoor environment! Where is this? It is a lovely facility! Nice job with the patterns and playing outside the ring, walking past other dogs, then playing at the start line to get her engaged, her line up and stayed looked just like home and you even asked her to focus on the first hoop! Nice! She also did well ignoring the walk through in the other ring even though it was clearly visible.
>For a dog who, as you put it, has been essentially “home schooled,” she ignored SOOOO many distractions that could easily have drawn her away from working with me>
Yes! I was so proud of her and of you too, for helping her!!!!
Grounders
>>She was telling me that having the toy in my hand might have been causing her to jump up and bite at me. I’m not entirely sure what she meant since I didn’t think she did that (and don’t see it in the video either…), but I felt like it was not so much training advice as much as it was a warning that it could be considered problematic.>>
Katniss was not jumping up and biting! But she did curl into you on the last line because the ‘go’ is not yet a strong skill… Maybe that is what the judge thought was biting? It looks like you were politely listening and thanked her, which is great. And on the 2nd run, you just needed ore exit line connection to be able to show the next line – you got some curling in and barking.
>>I sure wish I had remembered that I could have thrown the toy at the end of the run instead of having it in my hand.>>
Yes! As you build that GO skill either throw the toy or if you are in a no-throw venue (AKC), don’t ask for a Go. Ideally, you get to UKI and have someone else throw it 🙂 I tell people to throw it as soon as they hear me start saying GO GO GO 🙂
>>There is a decent chance she may have done a lap with the toy before coming back, though, and if there was a dog on the line already, that could have been problematic.>
Bring 2 toys 🙂 One stays in the pocket. Throw toy #1. Then as soon as she gets to it, whip out toy 2 to have her come right back to you. She might leave Toy 1 somewhere, but that is fine, someone will get it for you.
>>I was worried that it would be frustrating for her to have to stop after just a couple of things since she LOVES to move her body and GO FAST!!! >
For simple lines, keep going. For things she might not know that well yet (RCs and GO lines), or longer sequences – break things up and reward, then reset and keep going.
Jumpers:
Lineups and stays looked good here! I think the running past jumps will go away when she has less to process in the environment. She got all the jumps on the 2nd run AND did a rear cross!!!!!Chance 1 – fun to see her be able to function so nicely outside the ring here. Very mature for a baby dog!
Yo can see the tugging was not as easy for her here, so you can ask for tricks and also change toys to something new and interesting.
She was looking around a little more at the line too, so playing with her definitely helped.>>There was a 180 degree turn over two jumps; it seemed to be a disconnection issue there. Instead of stopping, I did a circle and brought her back. I thought I’d trip over her if I didn’t swing her back around to be able to get the front cross in after that 2nd jump. I’m hoping this was ok to do!>
I think she was reading your decel into a stationary position as a turn cue, so she exited the tunnel coming towards you. Leading out less and accelerating with more connection will totally help her out (and throwing the toy :))
The rest was smooth and connected and worked great!!!! It falls into the ‘keep going’ category because you kept moving and got success.
Chances 2 – wait, did a run even happen? LOL! It took 3 seconds? I think it looked really good!
>>you can tie your toy onto your leash for the dog to grab, so it wasn’t very long after the run that she got the toy.>
Very cool that NADAC lets you do this! UKI and NADAC are the only ones. While I am thinking of it:
Will she tug on her leash? That is a toy that can come into the ring for AKC as well, so getting a nice tug leash will be a good thing to have!
On the tunnelers videos:
>The only thing I noticed in terms of focus was a delay in sitting at the startline. I’m not sure if that was due to distractions or just being mentally tired. >
On the first tunnelers run, you can see outside the ring and at the line she was less engaged – was it because you only used food outside the ring? Or end of weekend depletion, or all of the above? Either way – if she is not engaged, ask for her tricks and get her engaged rather than pull her up by the collar… the tricks will optimize her arousal and engagement more than pulling her collar will.
Looks like there was some of that too on the 2nd run – even if it is a real run, you can still play with her at the start line, do tricks, etc – then let her respond to the line up cues like she did in the earlier runs.
That 2nd run was gorgeous!
>>(although I think I started my brake arms and verbal way too late!).>>
A little late but she was still able to process them and found the correct tunnel. Super!!!
>>You can’t see it in the video unfortunately, but that definitely happened, lol. I again did a big swoopy circle to get her back on track. I really needed her to go into tunnel #2 so that I could get ahead for a blind after #3, which is why it was worth it to me to “fix” it.>>
Yes, on the first run, I couldn’t see you but I could see her response and her anger LOL!!!
For me, a “fix” is when the handler stops and walks back towards where the error was to fix that one spot. Dogs really get frustrated/stressed by that. Staying in motion and creating a circle back around to where you need her to be (like you did in the Chances run) makes it feel like you were continuing the course PLUS it set up success for the rest of it (no chaos!) so she was very happy with it 🙂
At the end of both tunnelers runs, she curled into you and barked – high arousal and not knowing what to do. So definitely prioritize getting your remote reinforcement skills going, so you can say the marker and she can run towards the leash/toy combo (in NADAC she will have to let the person hand it to you, but that is better than barking at you LOL!! In AKC, it will be a leash marker before the reward marker (unless it is a tug leash!!). The barking at you at the end of the course can easily become jumping up or biting, so we want to let her know what to do instead 🙂
>YouTube told me I had reached my limit for uploads and needed to verify my account or wait 24 hours to post anything else>
Youtube is so weird!!!
Congrats again!!!!!! Team Katniss had a super weekend!!!!
Tracy
Good morning! It sounds like he did really well this weekend!
>I was purposefully putting on the podium to warm up to keep him out of so the distraction not knowing the point was to have him practice working with distractions!>>
Exactly! The pattern games are designed for his brain to process the distractions, and his success on the podiums told us he is ready to do them on the ground, moving through crowds, etc 🙂
>> First it was just weaves-reward-leave then jump-weaves-reward then jump-weaves-jump reward. I guess it was at that point that I started working up to the weaves rewarding and leaving. So again, great observation that I basically started rewarding only at the end of the course.>>
I think you might be putting too much emphasis on the weaves, too 🙂 The weaves are the 2nd hardest thing in the ring (moving to the start line and then doing the stay is the hardest for the dogs!) so it is possible that if there is too much pressure on weaves, even with a toy being produced: that creates pressure in the ring as a whole, which can make it harder to do the weaves… so there is cycle that makes it harder for the dogs.
>I tried to be more strategic this weekend and reward mid-course. After that I took the time to reset and reengage and it made quite a difference.>
Perfect! One of the big goals of NFC/FEO is simply to make the ring a super fun, easy place to be. A grand time, a big happy party, no pressure, easy, fast, and fun 🙂 Then when that is established with the easy stuff like tunnels and jumps, we can gradually slide in the hard stuff – stays, weaves, etc. and doing it all with the reward less and less “inside” the ring. The dogs let us know when to move to the next step: I am getting 2 whippets started and they are basically the same age: one gave me the big go ahead to add a harder behavior at the last trial (based on his engagement and relaxed but focused ring entry) and they other said nope, keep it easy (he was looking around more, not quite as engaged, so I kept it easier).
>As far a vet checks…. He’s been to three different vets (two are also chiro) for physical exams and no one has seen anything of concern. That said it would be my preference to get him to a sports ortho but there are none locally and appointments have a long wait time. I’ll start with seeing if I can get a local ortho surgeon to do the X-rays and go from there. 😊>>
I am glad no one saw anything of concern! I take my dogs to a soft tissue specialist in NC but it might not be too far from you: Dr. Marie Ballengee at Pawsitive Steps
https://www.pawsitivestepspetrehab.comShe is AMAZING and works with a lot of sport dogs!
And getting trigger point massage people to have their hands on him is good too – Beverly Adams works on my dogs locally, and Donna Devanney when we are in NC. They “know” the dogs so can tell me if something is different or tight or hurting.
Keep me posted on how he is doing!
Tracy
