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Hi!
>>I should have quit sooner.
You kept saying “one more time” lol! It was cracking me up LOL! You can set a timer for 2 minutes then be finished, or decide on 5 reps total.
To get the connection on the BC earlier and clearer, you can keep your arms in tighter to your sides. That will make the rotation quicker and so you can connect to his eyes even sooner.
His commitment was looking really strong! You can start the blinds sooner – when he lands from the middle jump and looks at the BC jump – do the blind. You were starting the blind just before takeoff or at takeoff of the BC jump which made it too hard to find the new side. You can go in one step less on the sends like you mentioned, but I think the main thing is that you can start the blind sooner and trust his commitment.
One other suggestion – you can be more lateral on the way to the blind: rather than run towards the BC jump (which also shows motion to the wrong end of the tunnel) you an stay in line with the middle jump so you are heading towards the correct tunnel entry and he sees a positional cue as well there.
.>Fun bloopers… my arms going everywhere on the one attempt. Putting in a reverse spin. Realize I am going in too far on my one step sends and then not getting down the line to do a timely BC.>>
They are hard sequences, so yes, there might be bloopers 🙂 Remember to reward him no matter what happens – like at 1:25 and 2:05 when you started after he took off so he didn’t know where to be – you rewarded but it was a while later.
Or at 1;46 when your opposite arm pulled him off the jump – he was correct! So it is really important that you reward him for trying to read the handling, even if it doesn’t go according to plan – assume all errors are handling errors so he was following you perfectly!He was very confident on the plank! Yay!!! You can take that little Cato teeter to different places, to help him get this happy anywhere he goes!
>>My thoughts due to his small size I would like a rock back on the end of teeter….>>
Yes – definitely a 4on behavior, and either a down or a bow at the end (which is a rock back) or a scratching behavior at the end. He was happy to be up at the end of the teeter on the mountain climber game – I think he can be further up the board (his toes right at the edge) and then you can get him to do a down or bow to rock back. To get hm all the way to the end, you can duct tape a target to stick out just past the edge of the board (I use a spoon LOL) and then put the reward on it before he runs up. I like something the dogs can lick, like a dab of cream cheese. That way he focuses on the end of the board and runs to it, so you can start to change your position or walk past the edge of the board as he is hanging out at the top of it eating his reward 🙂
Great job here!!
TracyGood morning!
>>I often use the wrong verbal and need to work hard to correct this. This goes for my obstacle cues as well as my reward marker cues. >>
For the verbal directionals, practice them before each and every rep so you have them ready before you run the dog 🙂 That will help sort them out! For markers – take a less-is-more approach. You might not need all of these markers – dogs make it easy for us 🙂
>>Take It, I deliver food to dog Yep, dog moves to me to take food>>
These are very useful!
>>Get It, I throw the food away from me and dog (sadly, I say “get it” for almost everything)>>You might find it easier to use Get It for toys as well, to mean “get the thing ahead on your line”. That way you don’t need an additional marker for that.
>>Catch, I throw food to dog (my new favorite deleivery since he’s getting so good at catching flying cookies)>>This can also be used for food and toys, because the context is so recognizable and we will never throw food AND a toy to the dog and ask them to figure out which it is based on the marker.
>>Chomp, I deliver toy to dog Tug, dog comes to me to interact with toy>>Is chomp a thrown reward, back to the dog? That can be ‘catch’ as well. One less word to remember!
>>Chase It, dog releases to both stationary toy or chases toy that I drag. I probably need to add a stationary toy marker.>>
I don’t think you need to add a stationary toy marker. Chase it can also be a ‘get it’ marker which indicates getting the reinforcement that is ahead of the dog (moving or not).
He did really well on the tunnel – wing proofing! Wow! He did not seem to even look at the tunnel when you wanted the wrap then was great about going to the tunnel when you cued it. Super!
He was reading your motion there, so now you can add in more emphasis on the verbals. Because the motion was happy before or simultaneously with the verbal, it was motion leading the way on that session. Since it went well, we can put the verbal before the motion by having you hold his collar, say the verbal 3 or 4 times, then let go of his collar so you can both start to move. By attaching the verbal before the motion, the verbal will predict the motion which then predicts the obstacle you want… so he then can get the obstacle and you can fade out the motion.
The set point is also going well. The first rep ws really good! His line up position on the 2nd rep was a little further back, so he was not as balanced – so that first position was the sweet spot with his feet just past the feet of the wing.
Good job mixing in stay rewards! Having the toy under the cone caused him to shorten up a bit, so it is better to either have it on the ground without a cone, or to have it as the moving target. What was the distance here? It might get a little wider as you add in the moving target 🙂Wind In Your Hair is going well! You can move the wing over to center it, so his line to the jump is straighter – it was a bit of a push back to the jump, which is why he passed it on one of the reps when your connection and verbal was not as clear.
For the next session, you can start closer to the wing so he can practice driving ahead of you. The placed toy was a little challenging, but helped him look forward so that will be useful when he is getting way ahead.
Smiley face also looked terrific – you were really emphasizing connection and that is great! The connection was pretty much perfect; the only spot to be earlier was after the spin at :40.
You can add in decel to the wraps here: as she is exiting the tunnel or exiting the previous wrap, you can decelerate before rotating, to help tighten up the turns. That decel will help her collect sooner.
She looks ready to move on to the tunnel exit games.Great job here!!!
TracyHi!
>>Should I toss it on the line she is coming in on or toss on the curve around the pillbug? >>
I think you can toss it away from the pillbox entirely 🙂 there is some pressure in this game (handler motion, the giant tunnel) so letting her chase the toy and move away can be a nice balance for that!
The set point session ended up well! I think at the beginning she had to process that you were combining the moving target and the set point, so she couldn’t quite get on the toy. The release was confusing for her at first! Changing toys and then doing it away from the jumps at first really helped, then she did great! Yay!!!
The next session will tell us more about distance, but this was really great to start it off!!!Great job here!
TracyRight! I think the more you do the deliberate practice you did here, the easier it will be to go faster and faster without having to think about it 🙂
Good morning!
She did really well here – it is a HARD game!! The wrap on the wing was easier, probably because the body position and lack of motion supports that. And the tunnel was harder, because of the body position and lack of motion LOL!! So to help with the tunnel, you can say the verbal a few times, then let go of her collar, then move to face the tunnel. That will help the tunnel verbal predict the motion to it, so she will cut out the middleman of waiting for motion 🙂 and just go the tunnel. You handled the little bloopers perfectly and she was happy to keep trying.
Great job making the verbals sound very different, and having a to of action when delivering the food rewards 🙂 I think she is ready for the advanced level where we add little sequences to this game 🙂
Tracy
Hi!
Yes, you are totally right, she was like WHAT THE HECK when you were sitting 🙂
>>Is there any reason I need to teach her from a seated position if she understands it this way?>>
2 answers for you:
For teeter training, it is good to be lower for this game to keep her head lower, which promotes a stronger weight shift as she moves the end of the teeter board.And also, it is great to get the dogs to offer behavior they can do even when we are in different positions: sitting, standing, dancing, jumping jacks, etc LOL!!! That way we are really seeing what they know and it helps translate the skill to a variety of different handler positions and moves.
So, separately from the teeter, you can take a behavior she knows really well and try it in different positions 🙂 And for the teeter, maybe try it in a chair! That can split the difference between sitting and standing, which she was very comfy with.
On the circle wrap video:
>>I tried to think really hard and lean in instead of out when going around the wing. I made an improvement but there were still some reps were I leaned back. It was much better though. >
Yes, for sure there is a visible difference in your motion! You did a great job of NOT stepping back or sideways. Your feet were moving a little which is fine (because it probably feels weird to come to a complete stop).
On all of the reps, you had terrific connection so she committed to the wing AND you were able to get right behind her tail to move to the next line.
Only one little blooper here – a tiny disconnection when you were coming back to the tunnel at 2:31 but you fixed it by ramping up the connection and she nailed it. Yay!!! You mentioned pulling her off one rep, maybe it was edited out because I don’t recall seeing it LOL!!
>>By the end of the session, she was dragging on the left but again, I still felt she was stronger on that side.>>
I think she was strong on both sides – she might have been slowing down later in the session because of the repetitive nature of the turns, so you can mix in fast and fun racing through the tunnels rather than all the circle wraps 🙂
Great job here! Take a look at the NextLevel Pup games and we can start teaching her those fancy moves 🙂
Tracy
Hi!
These are hard patterns and I think they are coming along very nicely!
1st 3 wing ladder went well! You were really focusing on connection and staying in motion! These were all blind cross exits but it went well.
One thing you don’t need to do as much of is use the opposite arm to indicate the ‘landing’ spot – that was delaying you a bit from moving up the line. You can indicate the push with your dog side arm then use connection to look at the landing spot, but you don’t need big arm movement to send or indicate the landing side.
>>I did not do as much sending as needed rather i started to work the wraps from the start side>>
There is an element of waiting on these, because we have to let the dogs get ahead of us before we can move again.
On the 2nd video, with the added speed of the tunnel, there was less connection. She was reading it based on motion but you can add in more connection back to her on the blind cross exits (and use less arm movement).
On the FC video:
The first rep had very clear connection! The more you work the connection like this, the easier it is for her to see which side to be on (and the faster you will get because you will feel more comfy with it :))On the exit of the first wing on the 2nd run – your arm was down but the connection was not there, so she went to the blind cross side (it looked like what you did on the 2nd video when you wanted the BC side).
When that happens (she ends up on the other side) – assume it was a handler error and either reward or keep going. Stopping/not rewarding is confusing for the dogs because they are correct. This holds true even if you can see her: seeing her and being connected are two different things 🙂 It is what the dog sees, not us, so always default to reinforcement or continuing.You had better connection there on the 3rd rep (1at and 2nd wing) On the 3rd wing, you pushed into her line before she was past you (:48) which pushed her off the jump.
The video of the other side was the same as the first FC video.
The first rep with the tunnel looked strong – emphasizing connection really gets the job done. I think you are using different verbals? But they are al backside circle wraps, so you can use the same verbal for all of them.
The reps on the last video looked good too! You are getting faster and faster, and keeping the connection clear (make sure you don’t block the wing :)) You started with a threadle wrap on the first wing here (she was between you and the wing, turning away) which is fine – but it is a different verbal (SO MANY WORDS LOL!!!)
Great job here! Keep practicing with the emphasis on the big connection and you will see it gets easier and easier!
Tracy
Super session here!!! She is very confident and thinking about her back feet. Yay!!!
Have you used a target for the 2o2o? I ask because it would be great to get her to back end up the board and front end just barely off it, so she can balance better as she rides the board down. A target will help get that when she is hopping on and also when she is backing up to it – right now with the backing up, you can’t sit any closer because then she won’t have room to come off the board – but when she does back up, her front end is stretched all the way forward off the board. And I don’t want to frustrate her by waiting for more backing up, so the easiest route will be backing up all the way to target position – the target as a visual aid will help.
Great job here!!
TracyHi!
This video was basically a demo video on how to break down the behavior to teach it and build it back up
SUPER!!!!
Yes, coming to hand it the huge key, so emphasizing it was perfect 🙂 When you were on just the wing, you started facing her (lap turn) and then got pretty much facing forward (what you would be doing on tandem and threadle wraps).The only hard part on the lap turns was that she would sometimes flip to the other side of the wing if you didn’t use your leg (like at :15, 1:00, 1:06) so be sure to step back with the inside leg (closer to the wing) when you cue the wing.
She did great coming to hand when you were facing forward with the wing!
Adding the tunnel was harder, so you were mostly facing her in the lap turn position. Yes, use your leg to step back here too but mainly she just needed you to call her before she went in the tunnel. If you called her late, she had to come back to find your hand. She makes her decisions EARLY!
So with the tunnel added in, you can start to rotate so that you are showing her the cues facing forward like you did on the wing.
Great job!!!
TracyHi! Everything here looked so smooth and clean! Yay!!
Yes, we will go back to the proofing now that he looks so happy with the line ups 🙂
The barrel to wing version of the smiley face looked great, so many pieces in play with the reinforcement, commitment, your connection, verbals etc. All looked really strong!!! So next step: you can spread things out run more 🙂 this is the stage where we work on getting more and more motion going, so it doesn’t blow his mind on harder sequences.
Set point looked good! Because of his age, we will progress this slowly on bumps for a while, no rush. We will keep revisiting it as he grows 🙂
He was leaning forward a bit, so be sure to add in reinforcement thrown back to him especially now that we’ve added the moving target. (And go ahead and add the moving target 🙂 l
Wind In Your Hair also looked strong… so let’s build up to running too 🙂 go to a fast walk for a rep or two, then if that is fine, jogging for a couple of reps… and if he is cool with that and you still have time in the session – start to run!
Be sure to maintain your connection and feel free to use a placed reward instead of throws.
Fantastic work!!
TracyHi!
Outdoors in a t-shirt in March… in MN. Crazy 🤪 times!!!! But at least the puppy got a good session! This went great 🙂One of the hardest parts of this game is the whole cookie-then-toy and she was great! All the action really helped keep her spicy for toy.
>>I thought about tossing the toy for her to drive past to get it, but figured I would stick with the baby exercise and reward with toy in my hand for now.>>
Actually, I was going to suggest you try the throw instead of stopping or moving towards her, and see how she likes it 🙂 She had no trouble being near you so I think it will be fine and won’t create wide lines.
The other challenge in this game is for you the handler to maintain connection while running, turning, and not falling over. Nailed it! Well done!!!!! She seemed to really like it and was still on fire at the end.
You can totally add in the harder stuff and advanced levels. Great job!
TracyGood morning!
>>I promise I will get better at this so you can see just the exercises and not all the in between stuff. Today just was not the day for me to deal with it. Darn decongestants make me irritable so just trying to stay positive with my pup.>>
What you did here was perfect: A couple of reps of each then dropped the whole video into the class. Editing is a BIG pain in the *ss 🙂 so I can scroll forward any in-between stuff or type my thoughts on what we are seeing.
>> Sorry there is extra footage but to edit is just not happening today.>>
No apologies needed! Skip the editing and put the whole video in like you did here 🙂
Looking at the videos –
He does GREAT when he sees connection and low arms, and has some questions when a high arm breaks the connection.
On the first video, your arm was high then you dropped it to look forward (connection break) at :09 so he landed on the bar (trying to read the change in info).
The high arm at 1:28 and 1:58 broke connection too so he didn’t take the jump, and also he might have been avoiding that jump because ouch! It tried to bite him on the previous rep!
You had definitely better motion on run in the 2nd video and your arm was lower for longer, which really helped him commit!!!
On the Blinds videos – when he ends up on the incorrect side, you can reward anyway because that is a connection question (not clear which side to be on) What happened was that at :05 you were looking down at your side which closed your shoulder forward, so he (correctly) stayed on his line because he did not see connection change to come to the new side.
Note at :22 how much more you were looking or him and at :27 how your arm was down to cue the line and he got it perfectly 🙂 Yay!
So the timing of the blinds is not as important as the big connection after the side change.
On the last run, you had super good connection after the BC and LOVELY low arm at :25 to get the rest of it! YAY!!!!
Great job here!!
TracyHi!
Tandems are a little trickier with verbals because they are not always on the backside of the jump:
When the tandem turn is on the front side of the jump, I use a directional (left, right, or a wrap cue) or I use my tur-away-and-layer cue (switch) is there is a big layering moment coming up.When the tandem is on the backside, I use the same verbal as the threadle wrap which is “in in”. Dig dig is my push to circle wrap, and “close” is my threadle slice verbal 🙂
Tracy
