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Hi!
Wow, the next level games went great! She seemed to have zero questions even when you were miles away. Super!
You can repeat this game adding 2 more challenging variables:
Send to the tunnel and get far far ahead, so you are past the jump when she exits the tunnel: can she still find the jump and keep the bar up?And you can do the complete opposite: instead of sending to the tunnel, run with her to the entry and follow the curve of the tunnel for a few steps before moving up the line to the jump: can she drive ahead of you to the jump?
These will be fun and useful challenges!
Motion override is off to a good start – she definitely thinks it is HARD!!! You got the game going with a bit of help in terms of body language (decel or a hand movement). She is getting it! So now take out the decel and just move very slowly and at the same pace the whole time (shuffling more than walking). When she can do that, then try not to move your hand at all (she was cuing off the hand lifting up a bit). All of that will help her think about her hind end and also be able to respond to verbals when you are moving even if the motion and verbals are ‘saying’ different things 🙂
Great job!!!
TracyGood work on these!
Wow, super nice timing and connection on the first blind at :13!!! You nailed the timing and connection, just perfect! After he gets the side change, add in more decel as he lands on the way to the wrap jump. You were still moving fast which cued a more extended takeoff, then the bar dropped when he tried to adjust in the air after he saw the decel.On the 2nd blind, going to the other side: The timing was good (not as perfect as the first rep, but still good). There was not enough exit line connection (eye contact back to him at :22 so he didn’t pick up the side change and stayed on your left side. You can totally reward that – if the dogs end up on the wrong side of us, then it is a handler blooper and the dogs are 99.99% of the time responding correctly.
The 3rd run started with the bar down at 1 (:37). You can stay connected for longer, and keep moving forward til after he lands. You disconnected and turned away as he was taking off for 1, so he go ta conflicting indictor: verbal said tunnel, body said ‘turn left’ so he dropped the bar trying to process it all. That will get easier for him as he gets more experienced but for now you can support the line for longer to support the jumping.
The timing and connection on the FC was good! But it is hard to get it completely finished before takeoff because he is so fast, so you were a bit in his way as you were finishing the FC – and that contributed to the bar coming down. He will get better at being able to process the jumping and handling, so keep showing him these lines to put more experience into his toolbox 🙂
After the FC, you had really good decel and he had a really nice collection for the next jump! YAY!!!
Great job here!
TracyYay for him doing really well!! And I can totally relate to the best runs coming when I have forgotten to turn on the camera LOL!!!
Hi!
You can try a 4 foot spacing and have the MM at 10 feet away, and see how she does!! Then give this game a few days off so latent learning can work some magic 🙂Tracy
Hi!
>>I’ll try the trading!! The jumping seems to be increasing by the day. I usually don’t really mind a little jumping and don’t take much notice but he has to do it each retrieve – yesterday I was bending down to move equipment and once he bounced off my head/scalp and once my face 😢
Oh yes, trade for a cookie tossed away from you. He might be regulating his arousal by pummeling you – hooray for arousal regulation but we can help choose a different way to do that LOL!!! So as he is coming back, but before he gets to you, use a get it marker and toss a big cookie or two away from you. It will get the retrieve without the pummeling or bruising or frustration!
>>And there are a couple people with train with in person occasionally that he could really injure…….>>
Arm them with get-it-cookies so if they see him coming, they can redirect to a cookie. And if he sometimes does adolescent-stealth-pummeling, you can structure the sessions so he is either on a station, or held, or leashed between reps so there are no surprise pummels. He is being a very engaged teenager so we can channel his energy into less bruise-inducing activities 🙂
>>It definitely doesn’t usually look like that but it’s nice to see with low distractions, he can do it>>
It was excellent and a big win! We can gradually add distractions.
>>I need to get working on this – I watched that video and had a puppy moment “that sounds hard, I’m going to go check my email”. But I’m very curious and interested to see what we do next so will work on it>>
Ha! Totally relatable, I do the whole “let me just check facebook” hahaha The moving target is a little hard so you can break it down a lot to get success 🙂
Have fun!
TracyGood morning!
The smiley face games are going well!
She had a couple of legit questions about finding the line to the tunnel at :06 and :30, for example. On those, you were looking forward ahead of her and that turned your shoulders & feet away from the tunnel before she was committed. She was more successful when you were connected to her and kept moving forward until she totally locked on the tunnel entry. So definitely stay connected until you see her really moving towards the tunnel entry, like you did at :15 and :44.The Wind in Your Hair game looks great – because we have been really emphasizing the low head position and looking forward, check out how different her jumping looks already! YAY! Your reward throws are well-timed and that really helps too.
She was super smooth and focused forward on the reps where you did a post turn around the barrel. She needed a bit more connection on the FC exits, so you can make a really big connection to hre eyes to get the side change super clear (sticking closer to the barrel can help too) and then drive up the line.
Great job 🙂
TracyGood morning!
Wheeee! Wind In Your Hair went great! She was on fire! She was looking ahead nice and early so you can throw the reward even sooner. She *definitely* preferred when you were running versus when you were walking and she didn’t lose any of her forward focus or accuracy with the added speed… huzzah! That means you can add a little more distance and run run run 🙂 (and add the go verbal as you mentioned).The wing wraps went well too – she liked the left turns for sure, the right turns without handling were harder.
Since she likes moving toys… you can take off and run wth the toy when she is committing to the wing, like you did on the last rep. That made it super fun for her to get that left wrap going!Since the weather is still looking good, try the smiley face games! Great job here 🙂
TracyGood morning!
The set point intro went really well!!!
>>Started with set point at 5 feet
Yes, leave the distance here for now – it is likely to change to a bigger distance when we add height and she is on grass or turf or dirt. Whippets have power butts and a different jumping and movement style than the dogs these grids were developed for <
> so it will take a little experimenting to find the sweet spot. >> because she’s in between the medium and large sizes (which is absolute blasphemy! She’s a teeny baby. Microscopic!). >>
Ha! She has grown since the last class too!
>>I was expecting to need to spend more time on rhe stay aspect but she had zero issue.>>
She was fantastic!!!!! One thing I noticed… Cash and catch sound a lot alike in this context. Hmmmm. We can work around it without having to change markers 🙂 The easiest work around is to use a toy instead of the cookei dispenser 🙂 and then ‘catch’ an be reserved for times when there is no cookie dispenser out ahead. We will be moving to a toy anyway soon, so you can try this with a stationary toy. How is the moving target game coming along?
Wind In Your Hair is looking strong – really good timing with your get it markers and cookie tosses! Your were nailing the instant she looked at the jump and not at you. Super! In the smaller space, we can still add challenge for her!
For the next session, use the same motion you used here… but with a toy reward instead to challenge her to find the jump even when in high arousal. If that goes well, you can add more of your motion, getting further ahead – can she still find the jump or does she just chase your motion? Keep tossing the reward the instant you see her look at the line 🙂Great job here!!
Tracy
Good morning! So fun to finally get to see him!!!
>>So I thought I had a sensitive pup, but turns out the pressure was from Prism hanging nearby, not me.>>
Good observation! There is no need for a baby puppy to have another dog nearby watching/staring… that is a lot of pressure. My adult dogs don’t hang out or run around and watch my puppies train, it just causes the puppy to have to split their attention too much.
>> The next thing I realized is that he is so ready for this! Wow! I had no idea he was saving up everything he has been watching! >>
He did great, what a good boy!!! And because he is so young, our goal is lots of rewarding of tiny pieces and concepts. He will progress more slowly through the games than the other pups here who might be in the 10, 11, 12 month old range – they will end up seeing bars move up a little, doing longer duration work, etc, but that is not the goal with him. The goal for now is all concept work and play and engagement so you can break things down more. Then when he is older, it will be soooo easy to put i all together 🙂
On the video:
The moving target over a jump bump went great! Nice job teaching him the sit!!! And to moving target is getting his head down and focus on the line, which is exactly what we want. The further away the toy is from the bump when you release him, the better he does (and doesn’t touch the bump), so keep having it pretty far past the bump when you release him. And keep rewarding those stays 🙂
The Wind in Your Hair game is going well! You can totally throw the reward sooner, as soon as he looks forward when he exits the wing wrap (you might need a heavier toy so it is easier to throw).
For the next session, add some more distance between the wing and the jump (maybe 3 or 4 more feet) and you can add more motion – start at a fast walk then jog then build to a run! If he starts to look at you when you move more or as the distance increases, you can place the toy on the landing side of the jump (about 10 feet past it) so he doesn’t watch the toy throw happening.
Nice job with the Smiley face game! This is a good game to reward a lot more frequently since he is not even 5 months old yet… duration on little sequences is NOT a goal 🙂 Tons of value and reinforcement and play are the goals, as you add more speed and excitement by adding a little more distance. So as the distance and motion increase, you can reinforce after every 2 or 3 obstacles – that will pinpoint the concept and reward him, rather than potentially have an error or tire out his puppy brain or body 🙂 You will see his speed and commitment really blossom as he sorts out how to use his puppy legs LOL! And this will fluctuate as he grows, so don’t be surprised if on some days he looks different because his legs are suddenly longer 🙂
One thing as you work through the smiley face games: You can add more connection on the tunnel exits here. You can look at him as he exits the tunnel and as you deliver the verbal for the win,g and send to it rather than point forward ahead of him (which breaks the connection and changes the line of your shoulders).
He seems pretty comfortable on your left side. It could be stronger side for you both, but you will still want to look at him to rehearse great connection. He is not as comfortable on your right side and your connection is not as clear – when he exits the tunnel, he looks at you a little at :47 and a lot at :58. So try to have your arm back, pointing to his cute face, and make a bit of eye contact as you move forward to send to the wing. Your hand can travel with his nose 🙂 That should help him lock on the line ahead.
Wing-tunnel proofing went well too! The cues were mainly physical cues, which is fine of course! When using the physical cues, you can turn more obviously to the tunnel so he gets a little bit more support to it for now.
>> But he isn’t terribly fond of collar holds (yet).>>
To get the verbals really solid, we need them to happen before you start moving (they were happening with or after the movement here). So the collar grabs become important (because you can both be stationary while you say the verbal 3 or 4 times) but we want him to LOVE the collar grabs 🙂 So you can try to line him up with a cookie at your side, take his collar, give him another cookie (this will also help make sure he will eat food rewards during training) then say the verbal a few times, then let go of the collar. Definitely don’t move him around by the collar or pull back or lift up, he might not like that but dogs are generally fine with a bit of gentle holding after a line up 🙂
Keep me posted on that beause if he still doesn’t like it, then we can work on it in a different context – happy collar holding is more imporant than verbal directionals for now 🙂
He did well with wraps on the jump, but you will want to use a bump instead of a bar on the ground – if he accidentally rolls the bar, he could hurt a wrist and we don’t want that. Or, no bars or bumps, and just a wing will work perfectly too.
>>We didn’t do set point. Do I hold off for a few weeks, or modify it for age?>>
You can show him the basic framework with 2 jumps and 2 bumps, that is fine! But it is something he really only needs to see perhaps once a week, just a few reps, as a coordination game – it is concept work for now, because all of the distances will change of course as he grows 🙂 For any repetitive motion games (set point, wrapping anything) he really only needs to see that in small doses, once or twice a week for short sessions – the other sessions can all be other types of movements or concepts.
Great job here!
TracyGood morning!
Really nice session here, hooray for good weather and green grass!! But ugh, vertigo sucks, you were amazing here to be able to do this with the vertigo!>>I had to make sure to stay connected after the wrap for him to go over the jump. You will see a few times he went around the jump, because I was not connected to him.>>
yes, the connection is the key element of the wing wrap exit and commitment to the next line. The disconnection was on the first rep and :37, so he correctly did a blind cross. If that happens… reward him any way because he was reading the cues correctly 🙂
Compare to the other reps such as :53 and 1:25 on the other side, these had great connection! And that connection also cues the next jump, so have your rewards ready so you can throw them as soon as he looks at the jump (rather than waiting til he gets to the jump). The early throws will mark & reward the forward focus, which allows him to then drive ahead more and more.
When the vertigo episode clears up, you can add more running but for now, stay at a walk. I bet you can walk and add more distance, which will get even more commitment.
Great job!
TracyGood morning!
>>toy retrieve (not that it is super reliable with him) is paying off in surprising contexts, today he found a dead squirrel deep in the woods and brought it to me to trade for a ton of cookies. I was very proud and throughly disgusted at the same time.>>
Yay!! But also… GROSS 🤮. At least he didn’t eat it LOL!!!
>>He’s got a reliable X (if I say this stay in your place and I’ll give you cookies), so I walk over to where he is to keep him in position.>>
Perfect! Reward markers are so useful!!
For the moving target – he is doing GREAT!! – Holding his stay, focusing on the toy, being a general superstar. It was a little harder outside but he did figure it out!
The longer toy outside was perfect! He really likes the inside toy so you can tie that toy to another toy so it ends up being 5 or 6 feet long, which makes it easier to drag and you won’t have to bend over at all (which can induce stay breaks).
Outdoors you dragged the toy with your dog-side arm, which helped you rotate less towards him. That is perfect for what is coming next! We add to it in the next games package 🙂
>>I keep bouncing around with my verbals, as I’m trying to teach him “later” in a separate context, but also wanted to engage him at home (hence the “ready”). So it becomes a “stay” “later” “ready” “okay” “get it” word soup. I think it should be just “stay” -> “get it”?>>
I feel your pain about All.The.Words LOL!!! You can use your ready ready motivator word as you play with him before you do anything else. Then a sit/stay cue. He probably doesn’t need another ready after that (he was VERY motivated here) and your release can either be your stay release or a reward marker.
You don’t need both the stay release and reward marker, because in this context both are a release. If I say “get it”, the dog is allowed to release from his stay to get the thing. If I say the general release while I am dragging the toy as the focal point, especially if the dog is focusing on it: the general release is also a reward marker, in the context. I would never drag a toy, get the dog to focus on it, release them, then NOT want them to get the toy (that seems rude LOL!! And also confusing to the dog about whether I want looking at the line or not).
The smiley face game looked great! Your connection was lovely and great job with your verbals!!
He is committing to the wings and tunnels really nicely too. You can move the wings another 3 feet or so from the tunnel, which can extend commitment and also you can start your FC earlier: as he is passing you and looking at the wing, you can start the FC and reward him for maintaining commitment to the wing!
>>Don’t have a left/right verbal yet, so we’ll go back to MaxPup1 to refresh + get those in. (we did the minny-pinny, but no words :D)>>
I think it will be incredibly easy for him to figure those out! You can do one Minny Pinny session to show him the verbals then add them into the smiley face game 🙂
After each reward, he wanted to jump up and pummel you a bit as you praised him. It was almost like he didn’t know how to celebrate 🙂 you can help him direct that energy by maybe pulling out a toy and drag it around for him to chase, or throw a toy, or scatter a bunch of treats for him to snuffle up as you praise him. This will help with arousal regulation between reps and give him something to do other than pummel you 🙂
Great job here!!
Tracy
Good morning!
>>I do think her lack of free running has created a lot of zest for training.>>
This is entirely possible! She has a great physical and mental outlet when she trains. Plus, she is a really cool smart, motivated pup so I think the zest for training will be there no matter what!
The 2 set point videos are looking good! I love the line up routine you have with her – it looks very clear to her and it also looks like she likes it 🙂 And the rug might indeed help with the stay and that is perfectly fine 🙂 She did well moving into the set point here! The MM is a little close so she was slowing down over the 2nd jump to get to it – that is fine for now and as soon as you have more room outdoors, you can put the MM another 10 or 12 feet away from jump 2. I am excited to see her work the grids because whippets have different movement through the grids and over jumps than other breeds (and also different from lurchers!) . Based on that, I am betting the distance between the 2 jumps will be a little bigger when you are outside – what was the distance here? You can move it out by 6 inches and we will see how it goes.
>>Though Paul and Chitlin are going to try out the Smiley Face, Kishka will need to wait a bit.>>
The smiley face games have a lot of explosive running and turning – when is she cleared to make rapid direction changes? We can change the games for her until she gets clearance. Feel free to show the videos to the vet to see if it is good for Kishka to do.
Great job!!!
TracyGood morning!
Yesterday’s reply has disappeared. Sigh!!! Here it is again, sorry for the delay!
Because he is still about 9 months old, you will want to pause training of the high impact stuff for a few months so his body can catch up to his brain (n terms of growth plates, soft tissue development, brain development). This will all result in better coordination and more power, which is exactly what we want for the box turn. But definitely keep training in flyball because now is the perfect time to do passing games, retrieving over jumps, find the jump games, etc. There is a club called Skidmarkz that creates amazing games for this so if they are doing a seminar in your area, I highly recommend it (and plus they win everything nowadays too haha!)
He thought setting up super close and between the jumps was weird 🙂
His stay looked great and it looks like he focused forward on his target brilliantly!!!! Love it!!! He is doing well with his organization too. You can probably have him a few inches further back from the first bump – I usually have the dog’s front feet approx 6 inches from the first bump. He was using his hind end to move out of the stay really well.
How is your moving target pre-game going? We are going to be adding that here soon, which will change things up for the jumping foundations 🙂
Great job here!
TracyHello and welcome!!! It is crazy that you are working outside in March in Minnesota!! But the Babs is happy 🙂 It looks like spring has arrived here in VA – 70 degree days and flowers blooming. What the heck?!?!?
And I think foundations with a 3 year old dog is really fun: all of the training without any of the adolescent stuff or any of the waiting for complete physical development.
She did well with the set point introduction!! Great job breaking it down then putting it back together. I think the distance is correct for her. She did well with the striding and only started to power down in order to stop at the food bowl. So when using a stationary food bowl, move it maybe another stride or two away so she doesn’t have to slow down as early.
How is your moving target pre-game going? We are going to add that soon, which will change the picture for her (in a good way 😁)
Great job here!!!
Tracy
