Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Hello! I have missed getting my Sunnie updates!!
>but I still needed to process and grieve…..>
Absolutely. That is important! Julie is wonderful 🙂
>Today she picked up the lotus ball & ran away, caught a bird in her site & took off running after it! >
She might have caught onto the rhythm of the game where she ended up back in the houses – dogs are brilliant at figuring out our patterns! That is probably why she grabbed the lotus ball and took off.
I thinking keeping that game in the rotation will be helpful but also adolescent dogs are really attracted to novelty – which is why the bird being so novel and so exciting caught her attention even with the fabulous lotus ball and rewards coming her way.
In other words, it was too predictable and we need to be unpredictable (in a good way, of course). We will put our heads together and outsmart her LOL
>I am very nervous to try any “agility’ skills in the yard >
TOTALLY understandable! Do you have a really long line, 30 feet perhaps, that you can keep one end looped over your wrist or on the ground, and also be able to play some games where she feels ‘off leash’? And if she begins to take off, you have the line and 30 feet to brace yourself and hold her so she doesn’t yank you.
And I am thinking in the interest of novelty, the best bet will be to set up different training stations when working outside: and do one rep on each before moving to the next. Novelty! That will keep her interested in the game more than the birds, because she can’t predict a pattern and shift her engagement. We will turn the tables and keep her on her toes LOL! And she is a smart cookie, so it won’t slow down the skills training at all.
> but I figured Moving Target I would be close to her & kept her leash on her! >
The moving target game went really well! He was very engaged 🙂 and almost perfect with her stays. This was a great choice of game because it allows her to channel her natural drive into looking at and chasing something. Side question: have you ever tried a toy with feathers to catch her interest in potentially birds situations?
When she gets to the toy, you can surprise her more (novelty!) with crazy running and zig zagging and getting her to think you are unpredictably fun 🙂
>Sunnie is now jumping 8” do you still want me to use a rolled up towel instead of a bar? >
When adding the moving target to the jump, use a towel for the first few reps so she can organize herself. Then if it goes well, you can use the bar. And is she is dragging a line, you can ‘lock’ the bar into the jump cups by putting the jump cup into the hole in the end of the bar. That way she can drag a line without pulling the bars down.
Great job here!!
Tracy
Hello and welcome back! Dublin has definitely grown a little since that first puppy video back in January LOL! He is a handsome dude 🙂
>Yes I am wearing a boot. I tripped in a pothole and fell on Saturday. My ankle is sprained and there is bruising on the side of my foot. Nothing is broken though. We will see what I can do this week.>
Oh no!!!! I am glad nothing is broken. I think you will see that there are plenty of games that do not involve running so we can take it easy on your ankle until you are happy to run again 🙂
>I think my fear is I won’t remember them on the course.>
Having seen you train him… I have complete confidence that you will remember them. And we get them ingrained at this stage so you won’t actively have to think about them 🙂 You can keep dig dig for one side, and maybe use something like check check check for the other side? You will get a lot of benefit from having the distinct verbals because course designs are adding sooooo much distance lately.
He figured out the moving target pre-game brilliantly! Yes, he was excited 🙂 but then he locked in and did great 🙂 Be sure to look at him as you lead out and before the release. He was focusing forward on the toy REALLY well and that will be very helpful in the games!
As you lead out, mix up the number of steps you take before you release him. -I think he can count LOL and he was anticipating the release 2 steps after the toy went to the ground. And if he releases before you release him, you can scoop up the toy before he gets to it.
Great job here! I am excited to see him in action!
Tracy
Hello and welcome!!! Great to see you and Tribute here 🙂
The wrap pre-game is going really well 🙂
When you were up close to the barrel, he was happy to offer – when you moved further away, he was not sure if he should offer or not. So you can help him out: start him at your side, hold his collar, say the wrap verbal 3 or 4 times while still holding his collar… then let him go. That helps solidify the wrap verbal as a cue to wrap the obstacle.>He is not an over-the-top sort of guy, so I thought I would be safe if I personally was over adrenalized and got shouty>
You don’t need to be shouty for the wrap verbals 🙂 You can repeat them quietly but definitely say the, a few times.
Nice job building up the moving target! Good stay rewards then adding the toy worked really well. Since he also likes food you can use a moving target of something like a lotus ball attached to a leash to drag 🙂
>Tribute is still “meh” about driving to a toy (especially one that isn’t moving)>
He seemed happy to chase this toy! And it will continue to grow as he realizes the toy will be moving 🙂
Great job!
TracyOh no! Poor Judge!! Did the massage person find anything? Has he had X-rays? I hope it was just some silly adolescent powerful dog ouchie. Fingers crossed for no more issues. And yes, there are new games that can be done indoors 🙂
Tracy
Good morning!
For the back and forth game, we are looking for the fine balance of when to reward: in the previous session she was looking past you to where the treat might be thrown. In this session, she was snapping into engagement by looking towards you very quickly and that is great! That also means you can reward more immediately. You can reward her for looking at your hands or in your general direction – it doesn’t have to be eye contact. When you wait too long, she started getting confused about what you wanted and was offering a lot of other behaviors (sits, downs, freezing, etc). So the instant she turns her head towards you is the reward moment, no need to wait longer than that 🙂
She is doing well with the 1-2-3 touch game. Because he is a food motivated dog, you can deliver the food in a more exciting manner: have her chase you for a few steps then hand it to her. I thin you will also get a more dynamic hand touch if you hold the hand out further from you: keeping it nice and low like it was here, but extend your arm away from your body so she can move to it, and look at your hand: that helps direct her to the hand as well.
>And the video also has her “hop it up” and spin movement tricks. I need to teach her more because sit, down, stand, bow are probably not very interesting.>
The spin is her favorite, I think! You can use this in the 1-2-3-trick game (1-2-3-spin!) And she liked hop it up too.
For the tricks, you can add more movement to the treat delivery as well: After she does the trick, run a few steps then deliver the cookie. That makes it very exciting!
I agree that more action tricks will be helpful and fun: she might like high fives or similar tricks with her paws, or maybe backing up too!
Nice work here :)
TracyGood morning!
Nice transition from the play and tricks into the start line! He was really pumped up to play here 🙂
He had a small question on jump 1 at the beginning: your shoulders didn’t quite show him jump 1. Think of it as the same as the strike a pose game from earlier classes where you can lead out into position with your arm back and feet pointed to 2 (more like what you did at :50 & 1:10).
I think the FC from the barrel (#3) to the jump on there last sequence was the best handling option here. He didn’t take the barrel but that was caused by you looking ahead to sort it out and pulling away a bit. The blind cross is also a good option – it went a little sideways here because you were decelerated then accelerated, so he followed the acceleration line and didn’t see the turn. But both of those will work nicely with you sending to the barrel then starting the cross before he arrives at it.
Nice work here!Tracy
Hi! The sequences are going well!
The timing on the blinds was good! I bet he doesn’t need you to be as close to 2 at :03 – you can be more lateral and send away to 3, which will show him. The line 3-4-5 earlier and get a tighter line.
You were a little disconnected and turning away as he exited the tunnel at :09 so he missed the jump. Much clearer there at :24 – be sure to show him big connection and keep moving forward as he exits a tunnel.
Sequence 4: Nice blind 4 to the tunnel there!
You can also try it on the takeoff side of 4 🙂A little disconnected at :51 so he went past the jump after the tunnel (same question as the previous sequence).
Sequence 5: Great connection to set the line before the tunnel as you got further and further away! You can get as far away from that line as possible, so you can do a front cross before he enters the tunnel which should tighten up the turn on the exit.
You are actually getting too much collection on 6 (jump after the tunnel and it is almost pulling him off the 7 jump. You can decel less and go directly to 7 to get a smoother line there.
The ending line looked great!
The volume dial tricks are going well. The more active tricks you did at the beginning with the toy are probably going to be the winners, in terms of getting him into ‘ready to work’ mode. The backing up and bows were more cerebral, so I think they are great for his warm up then you can switch to the more active easy tricks for the pre-run ritual.
>Also was able to switch between food and toy a bit, which he hasn’t been able to do recently. >
This is great! Being able to do this will help him be able to tackle any environment, even with big challenges.
Nice work here!
Tracy
Hi! Hope you had a good weekend!
He read the opening really well both ways you tried it. The faster line was in video 2, where you wrapped 3 (can also be done as a blind to a threadle wrap), slice 4 towards the teeter, slice 5 towards the poles – that was lovely and smooth!
Nice layering while he weaved! And good reminders ad rewards on the teeter 🙂 He found the 10 tunnel really well!
On the 10-13 line: It was fun to see him get it with you on the other side of the dog walk in video 2! The better line was set when you ran in, though.
Turning him right on 13 as a rear cross (2nd video), instead of wrapping him towards you (first video) went great! And it was faster than wrapping him towards you It is indeed a bit of a severe slice, but it set a fast line and got you ahead easily for 16. He almost got it with you on the other side of the dog walk – I think a little more convergence towards it will get it (then you won’t need to converge as much as he learns it).
He found the 17 weave entry beautifully! Wow! And excellent job staying in the poles while you turned and ran away towards the dog walk. Super!!
Great job here 🙂 Tracy
Hi! Hope you had a great weekend!
>fixing them up I discovered my camera turned itself off and I had nothing>
Oh no! I hate when that happens!
>Might just use my iPhone. Seems like that’s what everyone does now anyways.>
The iPhone cameras are impressive! They are turning out to be very reliable.
The walk through looked good – she moves a bit faster than the walk through pace, so you can try to move even faster but your connection was super clear and so were the handling choices.
The opening looked great! Like with the walk through, your connection was great 🙂 Lovely blind after the backside!
She pushed away from the backside at :20 and I think that was mainly her inexperience with backside jumps. You were pressuring towards it correctly, but because she is inexperienced with backsides, she read the pressure as a turn-away cue. Having to fix that made you a little late showing the line to the next jump, so she cut across and found the tunnel.
The 2nd run looked fabulous!!! Wow! Gorgeous connection throughout, your motion was super clear. Nice blind on the backside here too. And she pushed really well to the next backside, no questions which allowed you to easily get across the jump and show her the line to the next jump. Super! And the ending line looked great too!
Well done here!
Tracy
Hi! Hope you had a great weekend!
1-5 looked great! Fast and flowing!
>I think it would be wise to start heading towards the dog walk while they are weaving, but Rexx doesn’t really like me being too far away so I baby him a bit!>
I agree! The blind cross got the exit of the weaves to 6 nicely – ideally, you can be further ahead and start the cross before he exits the weaves so you are fully turned before he makes a decision on the next line. You can add little bits of distance and then throw a reward back to him at the weave exit to help build his love for weaving while you move away.
>Dropped 9 (late blind and poor connection?) >
The dropped bar at :31 was due to a late blind (it started as he was taking off). Much better timing at :45 and 1:01!
I think the tunnel-tunnel with the layering was more of a teaching moment for him, rather than a handling moment. He probably has not seen a lot of that challenge.
You can move in closer to the 10 tunnel entry so when he exits it, you are supporting the line to the 11 tunnel with continued motion, more like what you did at 1:05. I think having your arm lower and more connection to him will support the line with distance so you can get past the dog walk easily.
But mainly, teaching it to him by breaking it down and getting the reward to the tunnel entry really helped!!
The 12-18 section looked lovely 😊
>we need to work on distance skills to get 19 and 20.>
To teach him the idistance to find 19, you can move the 19 jump in closer to the natural line he would take when he exits the tunnel. Then you can reward it to build value. And then inch it back out on each rep to build up more distance as you continue to reward it.
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning! He did well in both videos. I think the difference you are seeing is all about the context and environmental challenges.
First video: He did really well with the tricks and tugging! You can give him a hand cue for the twist – sometimes in harder environments the verbal cue is not strong enough yet, so verbal plus hand cue can really help.
My only suggestion is to attach the toy to something longer (like another toy) so he can tug with head head lower, which will get stronger tugging 🙂
2nd video: He did well here too in a much, much harder context 🙂 The leash was on him plus conformation show nearby: cars, dogs, people running by, car alarm going off at one point. But he was able to respond to tricks and play with the toy.
In the higher arousal state, he was letting go o the toy when you touched him – that is good to know! Some dogs like to have their ribs tapped during play in certain situations but not when the arousal is really high.>Skizzle was distracted. I had to work hard for his attention and play. He wasn’t able to engage as much as I would need for a performance. LMK if you have tips beyond more practice.>
To get more engagement, you can try different toys and different play styles: longer furry toys, maybe? And whisking them away from him for him to chase, like a lure 🙂 You can make a really long crazy toy and have hi chase it and see if that helps. Smaller toys with you close might not be as exciting.
And, you can try insanely high value food – stuff he doesn’t normally get. It can be meatballs or chicken, anything he finds very exciting and very novel. My dogs love string cheese but they get it all the time, so I would use something different in this environment because novelty is very interesting!And if he struggles, you can start further away from the environment – at the outer edge of the parking lot, for example. Then over the course of multiple sessions, you can get him closer.
One more suggestion: you can start introducing the environment with pattern games. That can shift his brain into the focus mode and will make the volume dial game much easier.
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Hi!
That’s a big week! What is the story with the sore hip? Usually youngsters are made of rubber so we definitely want to keep an eye on what is going on in life or training that might cause it (and hold off on the physical elements of training until there is zero soreness).
>decided food is good. Toys are dumb.>
That might just be context and state: if the toys are in a context that is not normally a toy-play situation, he might turn them down. And the food might be putting him into rest-and-digest mode which will also dampen toy play. It is pretty normal at this point for the balance to shift back and forth like this, so I will take the food drive at this point because we know the toy love is there 🙂
His patterns are looking good – The next steps will be to start doing them when he is not as tired, and ideally when he is still standing. If he did the after 30 minutes of one/etc, you can try it after 20 minutes, after 10 minutes, after 1 minute… then before it all. That is so you are working in the state and context when we need th pattern games rather than when he is already tired 🙂 To keep him standing, you can spread your feet out more and put the treat on the outside of each foot for him to get.
Great job!
TracyHi!
>An unusual bar down for him on the wrap back to the tunnel. Was I too dramatic for him?>
The bar at :07 was a bit of late info for the amount of turn. It is basically a wrap, but the timing and position made it look more like a soft right turn. So he collected but then tried to adjust more and pulled the bar doing so.
Handling it from the other side at :29 showed the position better! Trust his commitment and don’t move forward, though – that sent him wide there
Threadle to FC at :12 looked great!
>I’m not sure I had those top 2 jumps set right – that was a pretty hard call for the threadle slice.>
It was set as more of an American threadle LOL! But still good to work on! Turning left there was the faster line – you can tighten that line to the threadle by tightening the left turn wrap with sooner decel (as soon as he exits the previous jump) but and being a bit more lateral.
Turning to the right over 6 at :39 was a lot of extra yardage and didn’t make a lot of sense to him (he think he was supposed to take the next jump).
He really liked the layering at 1:26-1:28! Super speedy!
>Late cueing the 2nd tunnel so he went a bit wide,>
Yes, you can decel and FC sooner at 1:29 – as he lands from the first layering jump you can be decelerating as you cue the 2nd layering jump, to set up the turn to the tunnel.
>kinda felt like I’d given myself a chiro adjustment doing it but he liked it and it did make the threadle slice easier.>
Ha! Threadles and Chiro all at once LOL!
He didn’t hit the bar on 2 but he definitely thought it was a soft right instead of basically wrapping back to the tunnel, so you can hang back more at the tunnel entry and send him past you to 2.
The threadle slice to the BC at :17 looked even better than the threadle to FC! And I loved the double blinds as a threadle replacement! He loved it and it was fast!
>I was so pleased with his threadle wrap I didn’t support the jump after it >
He was great with the threadle wraps here!
The earlier name call on the tunnel entry before the threadle wrap at :57 really helped! You were a little late at 1:20 so he was locked onto the straight line exit at 1:20, which made it harder to get the threadle wrap.
The rest of pop out 6 looked great!Lift ran pop out 4 really well! Being less experienced, she was wider over 2 based on you pushing forward rather than hanging back at the #3 tunnel.
To be able to layer it, remember to keep your arm low and show her the connection. She did a threadle wrap at :42 because of the high arm and connection looking forward to 2 which pulled her off the line and to the threadle side. You had a bit less layering at 1:01 and 1:37 but also less forward motion so she turned nicely there.
4-5-6 looked good! On the first run! Turning to her right on 6 took the threadle slice out of the picture, so by the time she saw the cue it was a bit too late to get it at :21.
On the 2nd run, she had a question about going to 4 because you were pointing forward to the jump instead of connecting to her (with you arm pointing back to her) at 1:04 when she exited the tunnel. The threadle slice to FC looked great there! You got closer to it at 1:40 but I think you can use distance with her as long as you stay connected.
Pop out 5: She was really flying here! The opening looked good – she was a good girl to stay on the parallel line to the backside on the first run! Getting her on your left after 2 on the 2nd run then turning her to the right worked, but I think turning her left on 3 will be a faster line.
Handling from the landing side of 6 didn’t get you far enough across the line so she had a bark when you were in her way at :14 & :45 & 1:09. I think getting the threadle slice to the cross on takeoff side is the best bet for her there.
>Less happy with how I was incapable of connecting with her out of the tunnel at the end twice!>
Yes! Make it a habit to connect back to her on all tunnel exits 🙂
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
>I decided to add the walk out challenge to this week. >
It is great to add the walk throughs to every week 🙂
Watson and Levy run pretty differently and at a difference pace, so you will want to do different walk throughs for them. One general walk through won’t necessarily rehearse the needs for each individual dog.
The planning stages of the walk through looked good – the plan was clear! Super!
You can add more to the connection for sure, throughout the walk through – there was not a lot of connection. You were generally looking ahead of where the dog would be (and towards the next obstacle) which is where bloopers can happen.
And handling more with the dog’s pace will help a lot too: The walk through was walked, but you will want to do at least one full walk through where you run, to try to match your rehearsal speed to what the speed of the run will be. That will test the connection and also it will help tell you if your plan will work at high speed (like on 6, where you walked moving into a FC but ran it differently).
With Watson: He ran this really well! A couple of ideas for you:
Sending him to tunnel 5 more will get you to the takeoff side of 6 sooner
Nice RC on 7!Call him before he goes into the 8 tunnel and you don’t have to get all the way to the wing of 9 – accelerating that much sent him long to of 8 (same on the second run at 6 and 8, you don’t need to block the wig of the backside)
You can get the backside of the last jump (:21) with more connection and not trying to out run him to get there – you were looking forward and pointing forward which pointed your shoulders to the front of the jump. This is definitely a spot in the walk through where practicing the connection will help in the run.
You got there sooner on the 2nd run by moving faster at :45 but you will still want to ramp up the connection for when you can’t always get to a spot and need to support it from a distance.
Levy’s run: He did well too!
Starting next to him and sending to 2 without moving put you behind on the first run but you got it! Yay! It was smoother at :42 where you kept moving the whole time.
You can decel into the RC on 7 to set the line and let him see your hands to help turn him away.
Like with Watson, for the exit of 8 to get a tighter line you can call him before he enters the tunnel, and aim for the a position on the center of the bar so you do’t push him wide past the wing of 9.
He had a buckjump here where you pushed into the line a bit so he read it as a rear cross, then lost connection on send to the tunnel at :36 – this is where the big connection will help a ton rather than trying to race him to the last jump 🙂
Th 2nd full run went well too! You were starting to get disconnected and pointing more towards the end of the first time through which was causing you to have to delay running to the line to the last jump (backside). He responds really well to connection, so make that your tip top priority – you don’t need arms much at all to show the lines, but the connection is very important.
Great job here!
Tracy
