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Hi!
Lunchtime training is great!> First 2 reps with 3 jumps were a little off, then he corrected himself for the last 2 reps. This is the whole session.>
What happened there was that he was set up a bit too far from jump 1 (:10 and :16) so he landed short and ticked the bar on 2. He was better on the next reps, but I think you can set him up at least 6 inches closer and you will see him more balanced through the grid because he won’t have to reach with his front as much. He didn’t touch the bars on the next reps but we can get him more powerful. Was the reward stationary or moving? The moving target can also encourage more pushing from the rear.
>Then did a couple of set ups – I don’t often practice in front of a jump, so took advantage of them. I t was funny – he is usually stronger coming in on the right side, but today his heel looked better.>
I think he looked good on both sides but yes, the left looked a little better! He seemed perfectly happy to set up in front of the jump.
>Disregard me almost falling over on the first one – I am working today, not day drinking!>
Ha! No judgement here, sometimes day drinking is warranted LOL!!
Great job!!
TracyHi!
Super nice run here!!!! Wow!
> He comes out of his crate when the PWD enters the ring, we do some up and down, some watching the run and then go to the entry gate for some more pattern work, I enter the ring while the PWD is still in, trying to keep things trial like.>
That went well, he had lots of focus coming in. Looks like he was bopping up to your hand to do hand touches on the way in to the first jump? You can ask him for more of that and even some spins if he will do those.
> I asked the instructor to walk around while holding his leash. >
He did well with her being right there. Handing the leash to her at the start was hard for him, but he recovered really really well.
>The back ring almost got him while he was in the weaves, but he dealt with that also. >
Yes, he did great ignoring the other ring!! And ignoring the ring crew person who walked in while he was lining up (and was sitting near the dog walk up ramp, he didn’t even look at her).
?Finished the run and decided to end the session there, didn’t want to go work on something additional and cause him to wonder if he made a mistake. No lotus ball on me here and empty hands, some cookies in my pocket though.>
Perfect! You can mix things up: for harder courses, bring rewards with you to reward out in the ring for hard skills. Or you can load the instructor up to reward for ignoring the ring crew, so you can go in with empty hands and empty pockets 🙂
>More impulse control work and work around distractions – been going to a local park where there is usually a group of dogs and owners around 5:00 to 6:00 PM usually 10 to 15. We keep our distance and work on his attention and skills, recalls and= call to hand and side. Also use this location to help us build our volume dial games. goal being to slowly decrease the distance between us and the pack. The only thing I can’t control here is the occasional off leasher coming over to join us>
The park is very useful 🙂 Is there a fence you can be on the other side of? You can definietly work on him being able to do tricks and stuff with all the activity… first with the food in your hand, and when that is easy you can bring a chair or something as a reward station so he does it without the food in your hands or pockets.
>He doesn’t like being wrong so stopping and redoing is not helping, going to be hard for me, but just keep going Tom. >
Right! Most of the time in agility, it is not the dog who is wrong 🙂 so it makes sense that stopping would be stressful. Yes – keep running!
>Yelling at him is NG – I’m working on stopping that>
Right again! That is usually another moment of just keep running. If he goes to visit as person, keep running your invisible dog. Be loud and have fun with the invisible dog 🙂
>As far as his arousal states, I believe that the trial atmosphere naturally puts him in high arousal. So the goal with him is to figure out how to bring him way down and then if needed up a bit when we go to the line. Keep working the pattern games>
The goal is really to find and try to maintain the optimal arousal state. A high arousal state is not a bad thing because it can actually help him tune out distractions. Bringing him down can actually cause distractions to become more prominent, so we really do want high arousal. We don’t want overarousal, where things can tip over into stress. Yes to the pattern games, but also big yes to more volume dial so you can get him pumped up because that will increase engagement. We don’t want the high arousal when he is resting between runs, or when he has a long time to go before his run. But we do want it in the ring 🙂
>Been doing a lot of experimenting with our routines, waiting, start line and end of run. Time to figure out what works best and build it into a habit.>
Yes – building the toolbox will be helpful! We want to be sure you have a tool for any situation, because so many different things can happen at trials.
>Training with high ROR is different than trial prep work. I keep mixing them together which probably promotes some confusion>
It is a hard balance because we need to work both. There are multiple ways to abe a high rate of reinforcement. Yes, cookies in the ring is one obvious way 🙂 But short sequences then out to cookies at the reward station is also good! And continuing the run is also reinforcement, so that is part of why it is important to keep going even when things are not perfect.
>Use class time to teach us how to best use a food box setup for UKI>
Great idea! You can bring an x-pen and have a table with treats in it. Then use your remote reward marker to run in give him a treat, then back out onto the course.
Nice work here!!! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Hi!
> I clearly need to toss bigger (or heavier) treat pieces to reward her sending ahead of me to the jump wrap. One cheese piece had a really wonky bounce!>
Yes – and we can also work on some forward focus games where you point to it and she looks at it, so you are sure she is going to take it 🙂
I need to find more videos, but it is basically this:
Starting from a stay with a toy on the ground (or cookie toy). Then you add an arm point as the cue, then we put it in front of a jump (toy on the other side to begin) then we fade the toy to throw it after she looks at the jump.
I think she was mad because the tunnel threadle cue at :58 didn’t make sense to her. You had shoulder pull going to pull her off the line and a tunnel verbal (but that is usually a forward cue) so she was confuised and a big angry about it LOL So in that context you can use a threadle arm and your tunnel threadle verbal.
The blind at 1:34 worked great there but it got you too far ahead – the last thing she saw before entering the tunel was decel and you pulling away, so she turned on the exit and didn’t get the layering. I think doing the blind closer to the exit of the straight tunnel might have set up better support of the line for layering.
Doing that line without the layering helped but she still wanted to turn towards you on the tunnel exit, so you might want to do a couple of sessions of rewarding for going straight out of the tunnel.
> But the inside hand back did get a threadle slice! I’ll need to keep working on those since she prefers to push to the back than
Yes! That looked great! Woohoo!
Thanks for the indoor/outdoor sprint links!
She is pretty consistent in her striding and has really good ‘reach’ in her front and rear! I thought the indoor video had a little bit more ‘up and down’ bounce when she was just on the flat, so I compared it to the straight line stuff from the ring rental: that looked exactly like her outdoor work!
Check out some comparison screen grabs:
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/19oMu33ka4qDsxBhzOmIvmofpq3aXhnTGxGzY8Zz9PUo/edit?usp=sharingVery cool to see her have such great reach followed by great compression. Her whippet friends give that 4 paws up!!
Great job 🙂
Tracy
Hi!
> Knight officially started his fitness course today. We will be starting out working on his core. Various basic exercises such as Head Nods, sit walk forward down, paw pods, Posture it, adducted Stand, etc.>
Nice! That sounds like a nice balanced program. The core is so important (I need to work my own core too LOL!!!)
>Also Harmony gave him a massage when we completed the evaluation. I figure since we were there and he did have a class last week plus being more active this past week I wanted to see how his little body held up. He was in great shape. His right front was a little sore and his hamstrings were tight.>
I am glad he was in good shape! Since he still was showing soreness and tight hammies… we can look at his warm up and cool down routines so that Harmony finds no soreness or tightness at all on the next visit 🙂 That will also help on the days when you do his fitness.
Generally for a warm up, I start with 5 to 10 minutes of free movement (trotting, cantering) in both directions. Then I do some skin rolling to loosen the fascia. Then I add more dynamic movement: cookie stretches (nose to shoulder, nose to ribs, nose to hip on both sides), chasing cookies back and forth, spins/leg weaves/backing up/high five tricks, sits to stands.
Then we train or run!After ‘work’ (agility or a fitness session), a cool down is very important. It is kind of like a slowed down warm up: 5 to 10 minutes of a cool down walk, following by slow skin rolling, followed by sloowwwww cookie stretches where you hold the stretch for longer.
And I bet Harmony can suggest other warm up and cool down stuff! That might be the missing link so he is feeling fabulous all the time 🙂
Keep me posted!
Tracy
Hi!
>. I worry about running because sometimes me running does seem to cause him to take bars but I think he did okay here?>
Yes, he did great here! It was definitely more arousing but that is good 🙂 And we do want to add in more arousal – it is unavoidable in dog sports, so we definitely want him to learn how to do agility even when he is really feeling aroused, internally.
> I think in the previous video I also had worked my other dog first so that could be part of the increase in arousal? I think you can even hear Lad barking in the house in the background of that one. He was in the car for this session so either he wasn’t barking or it’s harder to hear him. And I worked Zest first this time!>
Overall, I am pleased with how he is doing – very excited to work, very accurate, super fast, and happy to play with you. It is a big win! He takes a few seconds to give the toy back, which is fine. You can tug for a few seconds longer, then say out… then take out a treat and toss it to the side for him get.
You can throw the toy sooner on this game, as soon as he exits the wing wrap and looks at the jump. That will keep him looking ahead the whole time. You can can mix up your start position: sometimes send to the wing from far away so you are way ahead when he is deciding to take the jump (or not :)). And sometimes start very close to the wing and stay there til he just about exits the wrap… then accelerate. Can he drive ahead? those are both good skills to add. And that will lead you nicely into the rear crosses 🙂
You might have to move your setup so he doesn’t try stopping on the plastic cover thing in front of the camera. Is there a way you can angle it so he goes past the plastic cover?
Great job on these!
Tracy
Hi!
His set point form is looking good here! What was the distance between the jumps? I think 6 feet will be his sweet spot because he looks like a pretty powerful dude. Next session can include a stationary toy for a rep or two, and if he is fine with that and retains his form: go to the moving target.The moving target will help solidify his mechanics with more arousal and handler motion. Then we can start raising the bar 🙂Wind In Your Hair: he was fabulous finding his jump! The earlier you threw the toy, the better his form was: if you tossed it after he arrived at the jump, he elevated like a monkey LOL!!! But when you tossed it low and before he got to the jump, he was lovely.
You already added more distance and more motion and the go verbal – no problem at all, according to Fen. YAY!! So the 2 things to add now are the “extremes”:
– send him to the start wing from as far away as you can, so you are passing the jump as he exits the wing. Can he still find the jump?
– start super close to the start wing and hang out next to it as he finishes the wrap: then accelerate. Can he drive ahead of you? This will set things up nicely for the rear crosses.One note about the start wing wrap: when you are rotated facing the jump but sending to the wing behind you, you can give an arm cue to point back to it. If you don’t move at all, he was confused (:30, 1:00). When you gave a subtle arm point at :36, or a subtle lean on the reps after that, he got it really well!
The smiley face game looked great too. His wraps look fabulous and the right turn ‘race track’ was solid too! He is turning out to be a quiet speedy, so you can totally add more motion into this game by spreading out the distance between the wings and tunnel. You can move onto the next games with the wings & tunnel!
Great job on these!
Tracy
Hello and welcome back! He is doing well!!!
Pre-game for verbals: hold him longer so he can hear the verbals 3 or 4 times before he starts moving (and so he is lined up facing the wing). Otherwise the pups tend to guess LOL!! So in the other games that we use verbals for (like the proofing games), you can always start with him being held, say the verbal 3 or 4 times… then let him move.
Moving target on the flat looks strong: he is driving directly to the toy. Yay! His stay looks solid here when you were not moving. When you added motion, he had a couple of bloopers: I think he was guessing based on your rhythm. For example, at :38 you released him on your 6th footstep. At :43 he self-released… on your 6th footstep. At 1:03 you released him on your 6th footstep… and at 1:09 he self-released right after your 6th footstep. Amazing! On the last 2 reps he did not break the stay… but your releases were on step 7 and then after you stopped after footstep 6. Dogs have a great sense of prediction and it seems he can count LOL!! So be less predictable: sometimes release on 2 steps, sometimes after 10 footsteps away, sometimes 4, etc etc so it is never always at the same rhythm.
The same thing will go for when you add the jump, in terms of being less predictable 🙂 You were reliably releasing at about step 10-11 with a couple at step 12 ish (or stopping your forward motion then, before releasing). So at 1:01 he self-released on step… you got it… 10-11 🙂 Your boy can count LOL!
He was not struggling with impulse control or anything, he was simply being an over-achiever and predicting the release. So like with the flatwork, be super unpredictable about how many steps you take before releasing. You might have to count to yourself since he is so good at counting LOL!
No need to re-do these because we can apply the moving target to the jump grid stuff while being sure you are unpredictable with the # of steps before the release.
Great job here 🙂
Tracy
Good morning!
> Do you have a preference for 2×2 vs channels?
I start weave training using both. Then as the training progresses, we generally see the dog has a preference for one or the other, so I finish the training with the one the dog prefers.
> And at what age do you start A Frame training?
The flat work can start at any time (like running to hit a mat on the ground). I will start a low a-frame at 13 or 14 months old for a small dog, gradually working it up to full height over several months.
> When does Max jump full height?>
When he is closer to 18 months old – that is when his body and brain will be more developed to handle full height jumping. That also gives you time to do a lot of education, like showing him jump grids and sequences. If he understands cues and how to use his body, then full height jumping will be easy!
> I have started teeter and dog walk training.>
Fun! Those are very fun obstacles to train 🙂
Tracy
Hi!
> Would you also use the moving target for the Accordion Grid game which is coming up in Week 8?>
Yes, after the pups have had a session to see the grid with a stationary toy. Then onwards to the moving target 🙂
T
Good morning!
>He came home last May, so he was here all of last summer and it was definitely cooler here when he arrived than it was in Mexico (May is their hottest time).>
That’s right! So he will be fine, it might just take him a bit of acclimation to get to working full throttle in the heat.
He is reading the Go versus rear cross really well! Super! I think in these sessions, you can ix it up more – no need to do more than 2 of the same things in a row. Instead, do a Go then a left turn RC then a Go on the other side and then a right turn RC then a left turn RC. Keep it spicy! He is a Mali, they thrive on puzzles 🙂 and since he is doing well, mixing it up can be a nice challenge for him to continue ‘reading’ the handling.
> Not sure what I was doing that caused him to annihilate the jump>
It was the throw mechanics: The throws are either landing short to the bar, or happening as he is lifting up over the bar (or both). When that was happening, he was ticking the bar or hitting the wing to land and get the toy. You can adjust that by throwing a lot further for the Go lines, and either throw further for the RCs or have him drive the new line to you for a few more strides then you toss the toy.
>Got all prepared in the late afternoon to start the ladder grid work, go outside and it’s starting to rain.>
Darn rain! But if he had a morning session AND got to go herding, I think he was fine to just chase a disc 🙂 Hopefully he did get to go herding along with the BCs 🙂
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
This was a good session for seeing what he is reading on the RCs!
>Then we tried the wind in your hair game again….my first toss was still late and he head checked to me….but the next couple were better.>
They were good, he was looking straight on the Go lines!
> Should I worry that he is taking the wrap around the wing pretty wide?>
Nope! He was being a really good boy: when you did the FC on the wing wrap (like on rep 2 at :11), that set a nice tight turn to the front of the jump.
Compare to the post turn on rep 3 at :27 and the other post turns starts – that actually puts him on the line to the backside of the jump so he is correctly staying on a parallel path to yours. Good boy! Since we will want him to stay on the parallel line for future backside work, starting with the FC on the wings here will help keep that tight and not dilute parallel path understanding.
> I had started to use “switch” for turn away from me….so when I tried left or right, I don’t think he has those concepts yet. We need to put in more time on this exercise but it was kind of warm and he kept diving to the shade so I didn’t want to ask for more.>
I don’t think it was the verbals here! And I don’t think it was the physical cues (you had some spot on physical cues at :32 and :40 and :57, where you were on the new side before takeoff)!
Yes, you had some late cues (:50, 1:14, 1:22) where you were still on the ‘go’ line side when he was making a takeoff decision. But what was the cue for the RC here? Looks like it was the toy throw! When you threw the toy early at :57 while he was making the decision… he tracked the toy throw and turned the correct direction. A-ha!! You did say ‘switch’ on that one, but I don’t think that was what he was cueing off of, because you said it on other reps and he didn’t turn to the new side. So even at :40, where the physical cues were great, he was not reading it – he was looking for a visual target.Here is a series of screenshots so you can see what I mean:
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1BEHx66RvVjSoLXA67AnWkmOTPd77jGEW_2QirHq7NvA/edit?usp=sharing
So let’s take the verbal out for now and get him to turn without seeing the toy. Here is a fun game to play to teach him to turn his head to the new direction, based on the physical cues, since he has a great stay:
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Hi!
Yes, he is a speedster for sure!!!! This went well!
>The second try was so bad I couldn’t even look at it.>
If you still have the video, watch it and look at your feet. On the first rep here, you kept your feet together and stationary, so he missed the turn. On the next reps in this video, you either stepped with a foot or did a big lean – and he was perfect. So maybe in the session that you didn’t like, it was a foot thing?
But this session went SUPER well 🙂 so keep remembering to use your feet on this one.
Great job here!
TracyGood morning!
I agree, this went really well! Yay! It is a really hard game and he had a lot of success. He is so funny on the start line: he has decided that the down stay is his position. That is great – he held the stay really well.
On the serp reps, he did well when you were stationary and when you were moving. Excellent!
> the two mistakes Max had it was definitely my handling on the first one. It wasn’t clear exactly what I wanted>
Yes – that was on rep 5 – he was setup facing the threadle line so would have needed a backside cue to get the jump. When he was set up on a better line, no problem at all.
The last 2 reps were the threadle slices and they looked great! Very clear arm cue and excellent position near the entry wing. Yay!
>and on the second one I should’ve had my arm out farther. >
This was when you wanted the tunnel on rep 7 (1:07): when you were in the threadle position near the first wing: you started moving, he started moving… then you said tunnel but it was too late because he was alreayd committed to the threadle (and then he took the tunnel, good boy!!)
MUCH clearer at 1:18 (rep 8 and rep 9 after that) – the ‘closed’ shoulder really supported the line to the tunnel.
Great job rewarding him anyway for the bloopers – in this case, they were handler bloopers and he was being a good boy!
> On a separate note, Max is one year old this month. Should I go ahead and start weave training or should I wait?>
I think you can start! Are you going to do channels or 2x2s, or a combo? He is ready to start the process.
Great job!
Tracy
Good morning!
I am really happy with this session too! Good form throughout and super consistent – a great balance of power and speed.
>. I can never really tell if Ellie is pushing off with her rear and the camera angle for the straight jumps may not be that great for you to be able to tell either.>
The camera angle (side view) was great here, and watching it in slow motion helps us see everything she is doing. Yes, she is pushing from her rear. Watch her very first movement after you release her: she lifts her front feet, stabilizes her core, and pushes off from her rear. Nice power!
> It’s easier to see her takeoff when the jumps are angled, but she was probably also getting tired by then and her form may have been influenced by the angled setup.>
I thought she didn’t really show any change of form when the jumps were angled. No problem, she said! Yay!
The only thing to add is the moving target toy. The reason for this is partially so she can work her mechanics with you (and the toy) moving, and partially so she doesn’t splat herself trying to grab the stationary toy. The stationary toy was low to the ground so she was torquing herself a bit to get it. Adding the moving target will help that, and using the biggest toy you have, so it is further off the ground and easy to scoop up. When she gets her mouth of the toy, you can let go of the end you are holding so she can keep moving through the toy and not crank herself stopping.
Great job here!
TracyGood morning! Awesome update! Lots of good info from Ven!
> The first couple trips in Friday he couldn’t take a treat or respond to any cues. >
For Ven to refuse food, that is one of his indicators that the environment is super challenging. You can switch to a game of “how far away from the action can you eat?” and keep moving backwards, 10 feet at a time, then offering a treat. That can help us find the threshold, where you can start playing pattern games or asking for tricks.
>Later in the afternoon Friday, he was able to “practice” his table at the podium setup and easily eat treats. On Saturday he was actually able to sit at the outside practice jump farthest away from the door for a couple of times.>
Awesome! Sounds like he was getting more comfortable in the environment, bit by bit. Super!
Over time, you can work up to being close to the ring, and incorporating a reward station – when he is happy to eat in the busy environment, you can leave his treats on a chair or something similar, walk away a few steps towards the ring, do a trick, run back to the treats. That can begin to introduce the concept of remote reinforcement for runs into that crazy environment 🙂
Nice work!!!
Tracy
