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Good morning!
>Lift was raring to go but I also wanted to work on start lines a bit more so I settled for some crooked sits as a step up from the spin and go routine.>
Raring to go is a perfect time to ask for and reward some stays! And crooked sits are fine, you can always refine the later on.
One thing that might help is bringing her to the line on leash like you probably would at a trial – the leash ioften cues part of the line up process. When she is off leash and you ask for her to line up, she is facing you and barking so you can try having her on leash, doing a line up, then part of the reward is the leash comes off. She might need to do the actual sit after the leash is off (to provide a shake off moment) and that is fine š
>I need to remember to pause in the leadout so she has time to process before I release her.>
Yes – she watches you as you lead out (good girl) so taking a moment to re-connect and cue her to look at her line will help her get the line on the release.
On the first video, everything is looking really good! You can add more cues to the tunnel before she enters –
For example at :38, she exited straight looking at the line to the jump backside (yay!) so you can call her before she enters the tunnel so she exits looking at the front side. Then when you want the backside, you can either say nothing or you can give her a go and backside cue to support the backside line.
For the Left cues at 1:51 – the verbal seemed timely but the judge was yelling š so you can help her by using a brake arm and also move away sooner so she gets even more info before entering.
>Liftās 2nd turn was the last of the class and we were running a bit late so there is plenty of activity as the new class was coming in.>
Plenty of activity is GREAT and so was having 85 peoples out there changing bars as she was coming inā¦ very trial-like especially for preparing to run first in her height class which will probably happen a lot š
The handling went well here too! She is showing really good countermotion commitment on both runs here on the backsides, especially the wrap with the FC!
>Looks like Lift is either 1/3 or 1/2 of her classes this Saturday so that should ease her into running at On the Run. I do plan on doing more USDAA with her in the future so I have my measuring form printed outā¦and should probably just stash it in my bag so I donāt forget it.>
Sounds good! The USDAA courses I have run lately feel old school (in a good way) compared to the UKI courses: very logical for the dogs and distances that are also good for young dogs. They donāt have the same course design rules about angles of approach to contacts and tunnels, so I in each trial I have talked to the judges about dangerous angles for young dogs (especially to tunnels(!) but also to contacts, long jump, etc) and gotten then changed. So if you see anything weird, definitely say something because the judges are receptive to changing things, thankfully š
Have fun!
Tracy
Good morning!
>Unfortunately I donāt know the answer to that. these are few and far between.>
Hopefully they get a lot of good feedback and decide to do them a lot more often. It is really great for dogs learning how to run at trials.
>He did fairly well with the ring crew so is it time to make them more distracting ā maybe food bowls in their laps?>
I agree, he did pretty well here!! The beginning was the hardest part:
>that probably got him a bit amped up, hence the broken start line>
Yes, he had a little trouble on the start line. I think his response was more of a āthis is really hardā response, a bit of stress: he did the full body shake then took off. It could have been a combination of waiting for the other dog to be finished and him seeing the ājudgeā nearby and the ring crew person by the weaves was very visible too. So donāt make any changes yet to the beginning of the course in terms of making it harder.
He seemed sniffy in the middle section of the course, which seemed unusual for him. Maybe something just smelled really good or someone dropped treats? Or maybe he felt the pressure of the ring crew person? But it seemed unusual so nothing to really be concerned about.
So 2 next steps for the ring crew can be:
– have them get up and move around as if walking to set a bar, then reward him for moving past them (a food bowl in their laps might be too big of a leap for now :))
– keep them sitting quietly but he runs with the reinforcement not in your hands or pockets: you can ask a classmate or instructor to toss the reward in for you, or you can do little blasts of the sequence past ring crew with the reward outside the ring, then run out to get it, then back in for another little blast, etc.When he can do each of these separately, we will put them together: distracting ring crew with no food in your pockets or hands š
>Trying hard not to grab his collar ā giving him the responsibility for sticking with me ā habits are hard to break!>
Yay! And it is a good reward opportunity – sticking with you and ignoring the ring crew/instructor during those re-set moments when you are working the course.
>Have to build those treadle wraps, pretty sure itās a skill that Iām going to need,he does have the ability to get ahead of me!>
He did well working through that! Yes, they are getting more and more common on courses lately so it is a good skill to have š
Nice job here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Thanks for this video!
>I actually donāt think I had problems on soft turns! Yay!>
Super!!!
For the backside wraps:
Looks like the same issue she was having on the footing at the trial – she could not work out the footing and mechanics (lots of shift into the hind end) to set up the jumping, especially while you were running. She looks at it, canāt sort her hind end, goes around it (a good self-preservation choice!!)She is not really using her hind end here on the mats, she has more of a short up and down motion and less of an extended running motion and striding into the jump – not sure if she was trying to balance on the mats or if she needs a massage person to see if something is tight or restricted (it is that time of year when our dogs all get tight due to the cold weather) or both.
She could do it when you were not moving (:16, :28 and :42), which lends support to the theory that she canāt process the footing, footwork, and your motion all at once. Lowering the bar helped, and you can add decelerating into the cue and then walking out of it rather than running the whole time for now. And I think wrapping her feet for grip will give her more confidence on the mats – since running on mats is likely something you will want her to do, I highly recommend wrapping to give her more grip and confidence on it.
Her only other question was at :35 – you were early on the cue and accidentally pinged her off the line with a sudden decel and turning your feet the other way before she had turned to the backside š
Let me know what you think!
Tracy
I think Leslie is an absolute rock star! And I have heard great things about the class. Highly recommend!
Hi!
>
Would I do this on a curve or straight line or both?>Both! You can do an entire course, lay game style š and lots of rewards.
Iām pretty positive weāve done this grid before so Iāll look my notes up on this one. Would you add motion to this one too?>We did the accordion grid here and yes, add motion:
The trial is the weekend before the Invitational ā March 22-23. Itās at Canine Sports Zone. >Good footing there!
>The course designer is Laura Grosser from Germany. Iām not familiar with her but I figured sheās from Germany so hopefully sheās good lol. >
Expect German judges to put up highly technical courses š But for FEO, maybe you can make up your own lines? Loretta Zich is very nice!
T
Hi!
>No it does not have a food reward box option. >
You can ask the local UKI hosts to add one! It is really easy to do.
>Not sure with UKI rules if I run a NFC run or mulligan if I can just go to outside the gate give him a treat and then go back in.>
For NFC runs – no, you canāt leave the ring then come back in. Mulligan runs are not official UKI runs, so I bet you can ask the trial host and judge if you can go in and out for food!
>Forgot to say that this is a RUN THROUGH so food will be allowed in the ring. The RUN THROUGHS is to give us insight of what Speedway is since it has not been run in this area.>
Ah! Perfect!!!! So you can start with food, then do some remote reinforcement runs and see how he feels! And I hear Speedway is really fun!!!
Tracy
Hi! Super nice session here!!!
>I was working on getting to take off side before he jumpedā¦.so a little of the counter motion. >
Mission accomplished! You were on the takeoff side on most of the reps and looked back at landing when you released – perfect! He seemed to have no questions about taking the jump even with the countermotion.
He didnāt always know which side of you to be on when he exited, so he defaulted to the blind cross side when I think you wanted him to come between you can the jump (like at :41 for example). When you added more connection, he found the line you wanted very easily (like at :51 for example).
> I seem to have a hitch in my motion when I am releasingā¦didnāt intend for that.>
I thought you did just fine! Maybe the hitch you felt was you just being sure to connect and look at landing? No worries!
Since this went brilliantly, you can add more motion! His stay looks really strong so you can job through the game rather than walk, and see how he does. If jogging is fineā¦ try running! Fun!
Nice work š
TracyHe is getting the idea of he stay with the tossed reward! And it looked like he was having fun! Tons of success!
Be sure to break the session up to mix in toy play and releases forward to you. He kinda mentally wandered after the stretching moment at about :45, so you can break things up with play after every 2 of 3 stays. Since this went really well, you can add in toy play! The toy play can be before the session and during breaks, and I bet you can also use the toy as the reward you throw back to him.
The threadle wrap foundation looked really strong too – he seemed to have no trouble turning away from you as you were moving forward. Since. That went so well, you can totally move to the next steps and add the barrel!
Great job!
TracyHi!
She is so cute with her serious expression when she was watching you put the toy down at the beginning, then looked back at it as you lined her up.
This session went great too! I agree, she seems to have the concept. The training youāve done inside has helped, and also your high energy response when rewarding her totally makes an impact. Yay!
>And when she broke her stay a few times, she wanted to default to the wrong side of the jump, which to me says she is actually following the cue when I do release her.>
Yes! When she moved before the release, she was going to the backside (which is the line supported by how you were moving). But she got the cued threadle correctly every time when she released on cue. So the only suggestion there is to toss a reward back to her for the stay more, mixed in with the rewards for releasing to the threadle. She was raring to go, so holding the stay was harder especially with the toy on the ground – pumping up the tay value will totally help that!
And the threadle looked strong – the next step with the threadle and serp is to oh-so-slowly add your motion of moving through the line while you release her.
Great job!
TracyThanks for the video! This went well!
Her commitment is really strengthening! She was able to commit to the barrel one just one forward step, which freed you up to do the rotations for the FC and the spins nice and early. And she maintained commitment even when you did those rotations. Super!
For the race tracks/post turns, you donāt need to send – you can run in closer to the barrels and jog/run in an oval shape. That might feel smoother and also lets her really open up with more speed.
She only had 2 questions here where she did not commit:
At :12 you didnāt step forward to the next barrel clearly, so she never really saw the cue for the 2nd barrel – and were rotated before she passed you. Compare to the timing on the next rep at :43 (and the reps after it) where you both nailed it.At 1:40 you were actually running backwards as you were trying to send when she passed you rather than moving forwards so she was confused there.
On both of those, you can give an immediate reset cookie – reacting to the error and withdrawing the toy/stopping the action can be perceived by the pup as it being their error, but it was more of a handling blooper. So you can totally reset with a reward and try again.
Great job here!
TracyHi! Thank you for the update!!!
>First run:āØEveryone in class was out on the course and had music playing. The run started in the back and through the tunnel and when he came out which was the front of the course he just stopped.>
It is great that you were able to re-create a trial environment! When he froze up – was the tunnel exit facing the exit of the course, or facing the back wall of the ring?
āØ>First half of the run he started and stalled. Took him back to where the weaves were located and he did the weaves not at his normal speed but he did them. I then had him do the weaves from the front to back and he did them at his normal fast speed. >Was he weaving towards the crowd or people, or away? I am glad he acclimated and was able to get back to full speed š
>Next I had him go from the back to front going over jumps and he flew.>
Yay!
āØ>He came at and flew through the course. He did jumps at the front of the building with no issue.>
Awesome!
So let me know if this sounds right:
At the beginning of the class, the challenges were significant in terms of people/dgos/noise/music, etc. So we got some trial-like behavior. By the 3rd run, he had worked through it and was back to more normal.If that is correct, definitely keep going with the trial-like distractions in classes! And reward him for going past ring crew, turning away from the exit, etcā¦ even if the obstacles are not quite perfect. It is not about the obstacles š so rewarding for handling the challenge of distractions/pressure will be very helpful!
āØ>On Saturday I did take him to Home Depot for a walk. This has been over a month that I took him and he was confident there with me. When he came to the front of the building which is where the pressure is for him, he did come fronts sit to the left side, spins, etc. I know it is not 100% comfortable for he knows where the exit doors are and if we pass them on our walk in the building, he starts heading towards them. Also side note, I let him go ahead of me when we enter or exit and he know where to go to get the doors to open.>
His field trips definitely help because he is learning to do stuff in distracting environments. And in the ring, he is running more – freezing sometimes, yes, but it seems like he is not trying to escape and it not totally stressed by it. The field trips are useful for outside the ring stuff, mainly, because the food is right there with him š
āØ>I believe Knight is mourning Montana. There are times in the morning where I would throw toys or tug with both of them. Now Knight does not want to do any of the above. Montana and Knight were in the same class and went to trials together so I am keeping my eye on him. There were buddies even though they were 5 years apart. The other 2 in the house are 12 and 12 1/2. He wants to play with them and kind gets ignored. Also in classes or trials if he sees his friends, he does love to play with them.>This is entirely possible. Losing a best friend is really hard and I do believe that animals mourn. I think letting hi play with friends at class and trials can be very helpful.
āØ>More one on one time. Looking back with 2 other dogs I had confidence issues with I did more one on one time with them. Meaning taking them for walks by themselves in the housing plan where barking dogs are, walk the canal where there is heavy traffic and dogs. Figure I will do pattern games, some basic obedience, play, etc with him. Hope having this pressure applied and just being with me will grow his confidence just hope I am not too late to turn this around. >Yes, this is also good! Like the Home Depot field trips, I think this will help the most for outside the ring at trials (because food is right there). And being happy and relaxed outside the ring will help him get happy and relaxed inside the ring too!
And for inside the ring, keep going with adding distractions and having huge reinforcement for running past people – it wonāt really be about trying to run courses, it is more about staying in motion while there is pressure. The food rewards can be in the ring for now, then we fade them out pretty quickly.
āØ>Wednesday ā My normal class and will get my friends on the course.>
Perfect – lots of great opportunities to reward!
>Friday night ā I have 2 speedstakes runs and planning on running him back to front of the building. Not in my plan to do mulligans since he will have a busy Sunday. Anything else I should think about.>
Running back to front is fine but I am not sure it tackles his question about moving away from the food outside the ring. Does the trial have a food reward box option? If not, can you convince them to add it for future trials? It is very easy to add, I can help with that š A food reward option means you are basically taking his remote reinforcement game into the trial ring: he does a thing or two moving away from the food and towards the pressure of people in the ringā¦ then you mark and run back to get a cookie. You can do that a few times in a run.
In training, you can start doing that in very short bursts (but I think he needs a lot of reinforcement in the ring as well for moving past the pressure of people.
>Sunday ā Speedway day. I have him signed up for 4 runs. Donāt know what the rounds will consist of just know it is hoops, barrels, and tunnels but my main objective is fun and confidence. There will be other dogs and people he has not yet met.>
Bearing in mind that his favorite obstacles are contacts š you can break these courses down to start at a tunnel. And CPE rules might not allow for as much FEO or food use, so you can see how he feels about the environment and then decide if you want to run all the runs or not.
Nice work here! Keep me posted!
Tracy
Good morning!
>I am going back and watching the lessons on Volume Dial.>
Yes! This will really help by getting him to play and engage before a run, right at the start line, which will transfer nicely to the run.
>We ran VTs (Virtual Trials today- something offered in NADAC where you run a specified course and if you Q you can submit it). A little difference between this and regular trials is we only have 1 dog out at a time, so there is no waiting on leash for our run. This reduces the amount of time for Volume Dial and pre-run engagement (which we are still working on).>
Fun! You can still work the volume dial stuff all the way up to the start line – that is more important than trying for a Q at this early stage of his career, because establishing that engagement will help Qs happen very easily š
āØ>I definitely need to work hard on āleash off engagement onā I couldnāt get a good sit at the startline today.>
That is a fun one to play! You can do some tugging or cookie tricks, take the leash off, then immediately go to tugging or more cookie tricks š
>I am still working on keeping that connection with him and my arm out of the way (obviously I need to work harder at this!)>
Yes – he found the lines really really well on the 2 videos here when you ran a little closer to the obstacles and had less arm pointing. It will get easier as he gets more experienced, but for now supporting the lines like that really helps him.
Also on the videos – getting that engagement before your start the run is going to make a huge difference. At the beginning of each run, it looked like you were not sure what he might do so it as harder to cue the line. When you get him going and he could see the info more clearly, there were really nice sequences!!
>He missed obstacle 2 (the barrel- went the wrong side) then skipped obstacle 7. He skipped obstacle 10 and took the tunnel instead.>
These were all small handling bloopers š At the start, you were stuck behind the first hoop a little which pulled him off the correct side of the barrel. And at 7, you crossed his line too early so he turned on the flat (good boy!) And when he took the tunnel at :24, you set that line by saying āgo goā so he stayed on the go line to the tunnel. He was totally listening there! Yay!!!
>ISelf induced panic because he is still not comfortable on the walk- and we will be running at least 6 runs with dog walk (Regular/standard course). >
If he is not comfortable on the dog walk in practice, then I suggest not asking him to do it in a trial (where there will also probably be tunnels under it).
You can use those runs as FEO/training runs to work on other things in the trial environment! Plus, you donāt have to run all 6 – that is a lot of a baby dog, especially if there are also runs for other classes.
>I channeled my āInner Tracyā š and reminded myself that we can run these FEOā¦I can run any of the runs FEO! >
Yes! And your inner Tracy also says you can run ALL the runs FEO!! The goal at this stage is a happy, engaged dog in the trial ring. Qs or clean runs or doing all the obstacles are not important – that comes pretty easily with happy, engaged dogs š
>Our weaves also arenāt real solid yet, definitely not where I hoped we would be at this point and I signed him up for Intro Weavers too.>
Weavers requires pretty solid weaveā¦. And LOTS of reps of solid weaves. So if they are not solid yet? Skip that class entirely. No need to potentially create failure by asking him to do weaves a bunch of times.
>Soā¦I am thinking trial strategy and would like your advice/input/suggestions!
Happy to help plan!
>Day 1 we have the Intro Regular, Intro Weavers and Novice Tunnelers. Definitely planning on FEO for Regular and will make game day decision on Weavers>
Definitely yes to your plan of FEO for regular. And based on what you mentioned about weaves – either FEO weaves to play in tunnels and maybe ask for one set of weavesā¦ or skip that run entirely. We donāt want him to experience failure on the weaves in the ring because he is still in the learning phase in training.
> (we also have the advantage of running 2 rounds of each, so I can always run round 1 FEO and round 2 for real if desired).>
6 runs a day is a LOT for a young dog (6 runs for a whole weekend is also a lot!) So pick and choose what you run – even if you run all 6 FEO, his brain is going to get tired. Remembering that the overall goal is happy engagement, we want him rested and raring to go, mentally š And also bear in mind that a ārealā run is without toys, so he struggles with that in training – no need to put it into the trial environment yet. Take your time and work through the progression, getting several strong of ājust like homeā FEO runs with the visible toy before going to the āempty handsā step where the toy is in a pocket but still FEO.
> I think we can run Tunnelers for real- he has run the Intro level in trial before and itās all tunnels). The rest of the weekend I am going to wait and decide after I see how he is doing each day (I donāt have to declare it an FEO run until I walk up to the line).>
Tunnelers is a possibility for real howeverā¦ remember it is engagement that we want! We want to build that complete focus, rather than him leaving then coming back. So if he is really engaged and not distracted? Then yes, a real tunnelers run is a possibility. I suggest planning for fewer runs, and planning to run them all FEO. And talk yourself into doing them all FEO too LOL – donāt be tempted by courses that look doable and donāt listen to anyone who tells you to just run for real – that skips a lot of steps and could make it harder to get engagement.
Let me know what you think!!!
Tracy
Perfect! Agility is a complicated sport – we need to protect confidence while also setting & maintaining criteria… and while doing all that, we need to provide all the handling info at the right time so the dog can run the sequence properly, set up the jumping, etc. LOL!! So doing it in smaller pieces and building it all up gradually can definitely help us put it all together š
T
Good morning!
>Or is that the goal? Do 3 90 degree turns in a row, and later we can gradually expand it out into a real size pinwheel?>
Yes – that is the minny pinny goal – it starts with 3 quick 90 degree turns in a row (which is why the reward placement is so important) and then we gradually expand it. When it is a full pinwheel at real distances, all of the turns might not be 90 degree (depending on how the individual dog moves) but we use the concept to teach the verbals/turns that can be applied anywhere there is that 90 degree turn.
On the video – the reps without the bump all looked great. The food rewards allowed you to have more precise setups and more quick reps, but she definitely had a blast playing with the toy š especially when you added the FC and run. That definitely kept things from being boring!
When you added the bumps:
>I thought in the session that going left looked pretty good, but to the right she was having a hard time figuring out the striding, but watching the video back she wasnāt always bouncing going to the left either. >
This is where you can line her up with food and use the toy as the reward. When she was coming off the toy reward and not fully facing the line (or looking at you) or a little far back from it – her footwork was not as consistent. For example at 2:17 was a little far from bump 1 and looking at you – then tried to blast into the rep and had some trouble with the striding.
At 2:22 she was also looking at you and a little far from bump 1, but note how she changed her striding to be more coordinated on 1-2 there! Yay! That is an excellent adjustment.
On the last rep, she was lineup better – the only tweak Iād suggest there is to have her closer to the first bump so she can push in directly from her rear.
About the bouncing: You can try moving the bumps in a little closer together but mainly I think she is sorting out how to bend. She is 50% whippet and the bending is a learned skill for that breed š What you will see if that she will sort how to to first turn her head to the line (you can refresh the head turn game on the upright) and then you will see her bend her whole body. You might not see it in the session but youāll see it show up when she works the games. And bouncing the bumps here are not as important as sorting out how to bend – so if she throws in a stride to keep the bending happening and control her power? FABULOUS!!!!
>Then we did some more with the spins and added the forward send without the spin. >
This video is also the minny pinny – can you repost the spin video?
>I was pretty happy with this session until I noticed how much she was sliding around. This section of the yard is all pine needles, which is why the snow is melted, but pine needles donāt make the best surface for doing tight turns. So might have to limit what exercises we do here going forward.>
Ugh winter is so annoying! Fingers cross for the snow to melt soon so you can have some nice grippy grass š
>And the birds were just as active today, but I think she seemed less distracted simply because the exercises were easier. I think sheās an āif I know my job, distractions donāt matterā kind of dog, but if sheās unsure about a task, then she will find a distraction to displace onto. Which is good information, if sheās distracted then she probably needs some help figuring something out.>
That makes perfect sense! Plus the games here have a lot of fun fun movement, so that increases arousal in a good way (which reduces distractions). And also the more experience she has working with the distractions, the easier it will be even with the harder games. I think she is doing GREAT!!!!
Nice work here š
āØTracy
