Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Good morning!
PO 4 is looking strong! You can set Rexx up on a totally straight line 1-2, which will be faster on the clock because he won’t need to add a turn stride between 1 and 2. He had small questions in 2 spots:
On the threadle wrap from 3-4, you can get closer to 4 so he is sure that is the jump you want. You were close to 5 so he looked at you to be sure, which added a couple of strides.
You can also send him to 8 with 2 arms, to get a tighter turn on 8. He definitely goes wider when you send with one arm – that is good to know for when you want the wider line. The 2 arm send (brake arm) gets a little collection and can set up the best line.
PO 5 – this went really well – you did a great job of navigating him through the sea of off course jumps, especially on the whole 6 through 13 line. Yay!
2 small details to tighten lines: you can start him on more of a slice facing 1 so he can get an easier & faster turn to 2. And you can send him to 9 with 2 hands to ask him for a small collection stride – he went a little wide there on the forward send to 9.
>PO 5 4-5 was challenging. Did it the 3 times you see here on video and it did get better. Better handling or was he starting to recognize a pattern?>
It definitely got smoother and tighter! I think it was a combo of better handling and he was recognizing it. You had clear decel and stuck closer to the jump at :56, so he knew exactly where to go.
But the reason it might have felt challenging was that the slice would be the smoother faster option here. When he lands from the wrap on 5, he is pointed toward the 7/10/12 jump and has a long path to find 6. If you do a slice on 5, he will landing facing 6 – smooth and definitely faster.
One of the ways you can sort out wrap versus slice is to stand at the exit wing and look at how many turns he needs to take to get to the correct next line. If it is a pretty straight line (like the slice on 5 to 6 is here) then that is likely the fastest and easiest path.
PO 6: This went well too, and it is a good sequence to handle from ahead of him (his favorite thing!) When you did get ahead at the end, check out his blast of speed 🙂 He responds really well to deceleration in terms of adding collection, so try to do as many blinds as you can so there is no deceleration when setting up rear crosses.
The rear cross on the opening line worked but I think he will like the blind there! There are 2 places for the blind on the opening – either on takeoff of 2, or landing of 2. The takeoff side might show the line more clearly? But either way, he will power through the line because he gets to chase you with no decel cues.
4-5 might have felt weird 🙂 but that is because you pulled him to the threadle side of 4 but it should be on the normal side (same as 2 ) which should be a better line to 5.
You can also go for the blind 7-8. I think you will have no trouble getting it 🙂 He found 6 easily and with a lot of distance, so the blind would be easy for you to get to. The rear cross worked but you decelerated to wait for him which adds collection strides and will end up slower.
That is a fun way. To add challenge at this point! You are navigating him through these challenges, so now we can see how much speed we can get: what are the faster options? Rexx definitely has a preference for chasing your line, and you are doing a great job with the sends – so I think putting in as much blinds as possible will be fast and fun!
Great job! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Hi –
>He will dig in for snuffle at FF when a dog is working. This is why I’m never sure.>
I think the snuffle mat will be easier to use in different places when he is more interested in eating food rewards in general in different places.
Looking at the videos:
> I should have rewarded the front feet instead of asking if he could do the whole thing.>
Yes, very greedy 😂! This is a shaping session, so splitting the behavior is the name of the game not lumping to the finished behavior. He forgave you pretty quickly, thanks to the value of the tugging. The distraction of Tammy watching didn’t seem to be a big issue at all. He was a super good boy!
I notice on the first video on the 2nd one too, you are cueing him to hop it up… approach this as un-cued shaping (your proximity to the prop is the only cue he needs) and let him offer. He is happy to offer! And offering is what we really rely on, in harder environments.
>Second try new prop much easier>
Easier for your mechanics maybe but I don’t think we are building value for the contact board with the lotus ball.
The lotus ball reward was a little confusing: I assume there was food in it? You threw it with very good timing but then there was lots of chatter and reaching into your pocket then you opened it for him, so he and I were both like “wait, what are we supposed to focus on here”. Then the lotus ball becomes just about eating treats and not a toy at all. You can see how he started off interested in it but then went into ‘meh, this is about eating’ as it was clear the lotus ball was a food carrier and not a toy.
Try to get him to open it himself, by having a really palatable rewarding sticking half out of it – don’t help and don’t reach into your cookie pocket as he is moving towards it 🙂 You can attach it to a line and swing it around for him to chase like a toy. Or… just use a toy 🙂 Yes, it is harder mechanics but that is a small price to pay for the excitement and true reinforcement a toy brings to the training here.
I think reverting to food (even in a lotus ball) when training with props is why he doesn’t light up with excitement when training with props. Get them exciting with a toy for now, food can come back in later.
>Once we moved to tricks for the RR he was happier! >
Yes, because… toy. He is very clear with what is reinforcing and stimulating, and what is not. I bet you can get the same excitement on props with a toy (I think you also mentioned he didn’t like tricks? He sure did here because… toy).
The next step here is to move the toy outside the ring and play a similar game, adding going through the gate.
Nice work here!
Tracy
Hi!
Great question, and yes, I have a lot of answers LOL! I have a bunch of tug leashes 🙂My most current ones are from Dog Dynasty Duluth:
https://www.facebook.com/dogdynastymerchandiseWild At Heart makes lovely tug leashes:
https://www.facebook.com/wildatheartpetcompanyKaydi at Off Leash Collars also makes fantastic tug leashes:
https://www.facebook.com/offleashcollarsThere are also a ton of options on Etsy, but I don’t know any of them personally so I can’t vouch for them.
Now I want to go buy more leashes haha
Tracy
Good morning! These games are going well!
Looking at the first video with the LOEO game:
he did well here with the food rewards and with the toy. I think there is a good history of this already from all the toy play you did in the puppy games, so he is pretty automatically doing it already.
One thing I noticed was that you were walking him around until he looked at you, then took the leash off. You don’t need to do that 🙂 In these early training stages, you can just take the leash off (as long as the environment is safe in case he doesn’t engage) and get the cookies or toys going 🙂RR video:
I love your setup, gates and all! He did great – his only questions seemed to be “why are these sequences so short?” LOL! I didn’t see any concern from him or change in focus, when you entered the ring and did a little sequence without the rewards in the ring. He was also not looking at the reward when you did the sequence that swung him past the exit gate on the last run, he was totally focused on you. SUPER!
His high-5 behaviors seem the strongest when you are in front of the jump and he also seems to offer jumping up a little. He will spin and back up but those seemed ‘stickier’ than the high 5s 🙂 You can keep working on those so you can also use them.
He loves to tug, so something to consider is a leash he can tug on. That is basically like bringing a toy into the ring 🙂
>I have Benni jump into my arms for end of run routine. Brioche can do that so I will start to add that in as well.
That is a super fun end of run routine which also guarantees he gets his leash back on before exiting.
> One thing, he growls when he jumps up. Not nasty but just amped up. Not sure what to do about that. He does it other times too. Sometimes a sassy bark too. Oye.>
No worries about noise, he is just telling you how great the run was 🙂
> was playing the up and down game. He just wanted to go back outside and do more stuff. Whine, whine, whine. I wasn’t able to slow up on the food delivery much at all. If I did, he would whine>
This game needs to be developed away from work, so he learns it and can chill out… without being amped up from work. If he was mid-session and still amped up, it made thngs much harder. Eventually he will be able to do it without whining… but also I am confident he doesn’t even know he is whining so just ignore it. Start the game away from any other excitement, and just ignore any whining (wear headphones and listen to music if you need to).
>So I would wait for the slightest silence and start up and down again.>
The slightest silence is probably not enough to wait – starting the game in a non-amped up state to develop it and just ignoring the whining entirely will make a big difference.
> Is this his personality?>
Quite possibly – personality, age, state of arousal, all of the above.
> Last week after novice class at JAG, I had him on leash and was having a conversation with someone. He was very good about that. He just chilled out. I guess because he had already done all the things and we were done for the day, he knew that and just chilled out? It’s the first time that has happened.>
Yes, he probably was tired from the class and recognizing the context cues that no more work was coming, so he was ale to just chill. That is great!
Nice work here!
Tracy
Hi!
>OMG I just downloaded the Merlin App LOL!! Now I know what flipping birds are in my yard!>
Welcome to my obsession, the Merlin app. I especially love using it in new places to learn about new birds 🙂
> What patterns games should we try? 😀>
All of them are great! But I think the first one would be super bowls, which is a series of targets. She loves her targets (it can be a series of small baskets!) and super bowls is known to reduce hypervigilance in an environment: and bird-searching definitely counts as that.
Here is a visual of it, in case we haven’t played it yet:
Looking at the video:
The first thing that I notice is she is already doing a zillion times better about sticking with you and not getting caught in a bird vortex!And in the working moments and when you were actively engaged? She was a most perfect girlie. THIS IS EXCITING!!!!
On the moments when she checked out: she doesn’t have the bandwidth to keep ignoring the environment when you disengage to get ready or reload treats (:10-:15, :45, 1:58, 2:48) so she went off to explore. The good news is that this looks nothing like the high speed bird obsessing we saw previously. This looked more like a very normal teenage puppy checking out the environment and not like bird obsession. Plus, she was still tuned in because as soon as ‘work’ was available again, she was totally on board.
This desire to work does NOT surprise me at all – truly, the bird obsession has to do with a hard-wired desire to work and she has always been a fantastic worker. The challenge was that the birds were overriding the ‘work’ we were trying to train – that was creating internal conflict for her and probably frustrating for you too! But things are really shifting the right direction, and being able to do it in a fenced, safe area makes ALL the difference too.
> Sunnie came flying back, but I don’t think I did the right thing with her when she came back 🙁 I bet she thought I was talking to her as she frantically looked for snacks!>
Yes – if she rejoins (which she did pretty immediately) you can reward her instead of rewarding Spike. Sorry, Spike hahaha You can reward Spike only if she has not rejoined. So her confusion was more about “did you throw the treats? Did I miss it? Are we working? I smell cookies but don’t see any and don’t recall eating them” and when you did reward, she stuck with you beautifully.
Side note: I love that you named the video Sunnie and Spike hahahahaha
So to keep diminishing the check outs – we need to give her some type of ‘work’ in the moments you need to reload or disengage for whatever reason. I like the station or crate idea for her! She loved her dopamine box because it was a station-like work. You can transfer that to a cot or dog bed or crate. You can also teach her to line up between your feet as a ‘hold that thought’ position haha (one of my young dogs hangs out in the line up position when I need him to just give me a moment and ignore stuff in the environment).
For your next outdoor session add in some type of behavior for those in-between moments and let’s see how it goes.
And I highly recommend playing the Find My Face game from MaxPup 1 – it teaches her that your disengagement is still actually a cue to work 🙂
Resilience Game: Find My Face For Arousal Management And Frustration Reduction
If you haven’t played it recently, start it indoors to refresh it. Then take it outside on a leash at first. Then we can use it mid-game for the handling games 🙂
>Before I actually started ‘work’ I walked around with Sunnie, did some tricks, let her go to the basket.>
Super! I think she did REALLY well in this session 🙂
Great job!
Tracy
Good morning! I am glad he is back in action – sorry to hear the recovery was hard on you. But it is over now and we can get back to the fun fun fun 🙂
>
This is great! It is a perfect time for him to get more happy exposures to trial settings for sure.
> behindedness>
Ha! This is my favorite new word!
His happy almost-zoomies after the ‘catch’ were hilarious!
He might be anticipating the release when you were putting the toy down because he thinks the release is when the toy hits the ground – you were trying to get lots of success, so you were releasing when the toy hit the ground on the first several reps. To help resolve the anticipation and get him more solid in the stay, you can split the lowering of the toy into smaller pieces: dangle it, then release. Lower it halfway, then release. Put it on the ground, praise, then release. That way the release can come at all different times but never actually when the toy touches the floor 🙂
He doesn’t seem to anticipate the release for the ‘catch’ rewards because it is unpredictable (in a good way :)) So with that in mind, we can build up to being happily unpredictable with the moving target too. And he will start chasing & targeting the toy more when it becomes less about the impulse control of the stay and more about the release to chase it to get the cookies 🙂
Great job here!
Tracy
Let me know how it goes! The snoot-in-a-loop trick is a great way to make coming into you for collar stuff FUN, plus it evolves into an excellent end-of-run game too.
T
Good morning!
>. It seems like he has great handler focus vs obstacle right now lol. My timing just seems to suck. Do I toss in more go’s?>
The GO reps are looking really strong – he is looking ahead and driving ahead really well, even with the toy in your hand. So why isn’t he driving ahead on the RCs too, why so much handler focus?
It is because of the reward placement. On the GO reps, you consistently throw the toy. I think it is 100% of the time – even if it lands in the wrong spot – that toy is delivered somewhere on the line and never from your hand. So he seems to associate the GO cues with looking forward to the line. That is exactly what we want!
The RCs right now are needing you to be quite perfect to get him to take the jump and turn the correct direction… if you cut behind him on the RC too soon, he didn’t take the jump. And he was not accelerating past you a lot, which made it hard to get to the new side on time. Why wasn’t he accelerating past you on the RC cues, when he is brilliant with it when you cue a GO?
It is because of the reward placement. You are very consistently delivering from your hand (or one on rep, you tossed it but it was still next to you).
So Dublin is associating the RC cues with the reward from your hand, so he is locking onto you and your hands. He is a smartie!
But that is an easy fix: throw the reward long and far from on the RCs too, like you do on the GO reps. Using the easier toy to throw will make this easier. It might take him a session to ‘unstick’ himself from your hands, but if you consistently throw the reward you will find the RCs get easier and easier.
You were definitely showing the center of the bar so he turned the correct direction – and the thrown rewards will get him committing really well so it all gets easier.
> did learn he likes the one toy a lot and I shouldn’t have it out if I am trying yep use a different one. Toy thief>
That was so funny when he did the line and got the other toy LOL! The first toy was so much easier to throw, though, so maybe hide the toy he likes better and keep throwing the easier toy (he did really like it too :))
>I did put a couple of backsides in. I thought those went well. Didn’t use my verbal though. Also messed up my verbal for the left wrap on the go and RC >
I agree, the backsides are going well! Super! Next time add the verbal – and yes, it is very easy to forget the verbal or use the wrong ones at this stage of training! When I am needing to switch verbals mid-session, I take a moment (or 2 or 3 or more haha) to walk it with the verbal, to double check I say the correct one before adding the dog in. I am sure the neighbors think I am NUTS when I run around yelling random things without the dog (they are correct haha) but it helps me remember to use the correct verbals.
Great job here!
Tracy
Hi!
These distance challenges are really hard for very small dogs because they have to take soooooo many steps to get to the jumps and tunnels: 6 or 8 strides for a small dog, compared to 1 or 2 strides for the big dogs! Both girls did GREAT!
Rosie’s video:
This went really well!She did a great job driving to the tunnel especially when there was momentum of a jump or two before it but also the outside arm (:30 & :57 & 1:33) really helped! In those outside arm spots, there was not a lot of momentum because you had decelerated to set up the layering, but the opposite arm sent her rocketing away to the tunnel. Yay!
You can also play with sticking closer to the jumps on the previous line to set up more acceleration to the tunnel – on the first handling challenge, for example, you can stay close to 7 til she gets to it, then accelerate towards 8 to cue extension, then start telling her about the tunnel before she takes off for the 8 jump,
For the jump after the tunnel, particularly jump 3: you were helping by converging towards it a bit but when you started throwing the reward on rep 2, she needed that convergence less and less. You didn’t really move towards jump 3 at :34 for example and she found it really well. You can play with staying on a parallel line to the distance line you want her to take, to see if she will stay out on the line (then throw the reward :))
On Lily’s video:
She was on fire! Really great line driving here!When you were facing the tunnel when she landed from the jump before it to send her to it, she really drove to it and stayed on the straight line. Impressive! If you turned too early (like at :12 where you wee already turned when she landed)
You can also stick closer to the previous line so she accelerates to the tunnel while you stay on a parallel line to it – that way she won’t see you pull away to get to the next line, which changes her line on the tunnel exit. You did that at :39 and she was able to find the tunnel AND stay on her parallel line to the jump after it. Yay!When you got in a little too deep on the line at 1:04, she saw you pull away to layer, which got too tight of a turn on the tunnel exit – you pushed her back out to the jump, but you can set a parallel line there by being closer to the previous jump so she stays out on her line after the tunnel.
>. Because I didn’t think I was going to run the full course, I did not have it in my head very well, so I was focused mostly on the distance challenges.>
No worries at all, the distance challenges were the primary goal 🙂 The tight turny stuff was mainly to get her into handler focus, to add challenge to getting her back onto the distance line. Both dogs did great!
>We had a trial last weekend in a place (horse barn) that we only trial in once a year. Lily was pretty good the first day, but the second day she was highly distracted. >
Sometimes the 2nd day is different (not in a good way) if the dog was sore or mentally tired – if she only sees the horse barn once a year, then both of those might have been factors. Footing in barns is HARD for small dogs, it is like running through sand dune if it is soft, or on concrete if it is hard. And there are soooo many unique sights and smells in a barn: she might have mentally depleted all of her brain energy tuning it out on day 1 and needed a few days to recover.
> but I wanted to see if I could work through it and get her back. She did better in the rest of her runs, I tried to stay super connected.>
Connection always helps! What else did you do to help her out?
> I think the rough spots were mostly where I lost connection.>
Dogs do struggle when we lose connection, especially in hard environments. It is important in those moments to keep going no matter what (doesn’t matter if we are still Qing :)), just keep running 🙂 If we lose connection or make a handler error (which we do a lot LOL) and stop and try to fix it: the dogs get stressed, often perceiving it as punishment, and that can cause shut down issues if they are already in a really hard environment.
> I thought if I could get her back and work through this, it might be a better learning experience and show some resiliency. Was that the right approach?>
It really depends on how it went: were the other runs happy and fluid? Then yes, it was a good approach! And the things that made those runs happy and fluid should definitely be things you keep doing.
But if she was still stressed or struggling, it might be building stress into the agility game. If that was the case, and it is not normally the case, you can note that the harder
sites (like this barn) as good for one-day-only in the future. If you had access to practice in it or trial there more, it would be much easier to build up her barn love 🙂 but it sounds like it is not something easily accessible to do that.Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning! These went really well! Some suggestions to smooth out the parts that might have felt choppy 🙂
PO1:
Handling the opening as a double ‘in’ threadle slice worked well. I notice that he waits for you to send him back out to the jump (you can see this on jump 3 and also on 7 at :13), so you can play with making it more automatic: instead of closing the shoulder to pull him in, open op your dog-side arm back to him, swinging it back fully extended away from you. That will both pull him in and if you keep it in that position as you stay connected and move along the line, it will automatically cue him to go back out too.Getting him through the gap on the 4-5-6 line by layering worked really well! He glanced at you a little, but I think that was more about the challenge being very different than expected 🙂 He was super good about following the line and not randomly flicking away to grab obstacles.
PO2: You can try leading out more here or sending to 1 from further away, which will make it smoother at 2. If you can be past 2 when he is jumping it, he can maintain speed and drive the line more.
You can also play with handling that line from the landing side of 1 (takeoff side of 2) and doing a threadle wrap on 3. We can compare and see which is quicker!
4-5-6 was super nice, he found the tunnel through the gap very easily thanks to your clear connection and verbals!
He slowed down on the way to the 7 backside at :30 – you decelerated there and turned your shoulder forward. You get more speed there by getting closer to the tunnel so you can drive forward more, and you can keep your arm back so he commits to the backside sooner (arm back means shoulders point to the line more clearly).
The closing line looked smooth & fast!
PO3 – you can get more speed on the 1-2-3 line by leading out more and getting further past 2 so he chases the line more. By starting with him at 1, he was pretty convinced the tnunel was next then was not as sure about the 2-3 line.
>Pop out 3-tried both RC and BC from 6-7.>
Both went smoothly, so I timed them 🙂 The BC option was faster by almost half a second from 5 to 8. That is significant! He definitely loves to chase your line, so it is good to see that chasing you through the blind is definitely faster on the clock too 🙂 Part of that was by getting into the gap for the blind, you reduced the yardage he ran (plus he was happy to chase you :))
He also didn’t question finding the 9 jump through the gap here as much – he was recognizing it as a normal line and not a weird challenge 🙂
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Hi!
It was super fun see you and the dogs at Quad Cities! They both did great 🙂
She did a super job with the handling challenges!
First video: going straight, no problem at all. Yay! The distance and layering in general is going really well. She doesn’t even need a ton of motion from you anymore: a casual suggestion of “go get on that line and run fast” is causing her to rocket away to the line. SUPER!
The right turn cue worked well at :28 – the FC would need a threadle cue with it, or do a blind to keep her out on the line longer.
You delayed the cross on the next rep and on the next sequence (1:53) but I think that caused some questions from her in the form of “why are you just standing there, human” LOL!
2nd video – the opening looked great here! And she nailed the threadle wrap. You had a lot of acceleration to the jump after it (:28) so she thought you wanted the straight line. A brake arm as you head to the jump should get the turn even as you accelerate.
At :35 she was happy to work at a distance but your line of motion changed, so she followed that instead of going to the tnnel. At 1:02, you were a little closer to the landing of the backside jump as you sent her to the jump before the tunnel, which set the line better because you didn’t turn away from the line as early.
>Then I remembered (duh!) that I should just run somewhere if she was being an angry kangaroo so there was a lot of free styling but then it got back on track and she was even good about her leash at the end despite all the earlier boinging.>
Yes! That was hard because it took you a moment to be able to reconnect and get her back on a line, but you did it, she recovered, and finished strong. A wild ride but a strong finish!
And on the modified ending, there didn’t seem to be any fallout from the previous arousal. She was back to her normal self, able to work with focus. Yay! so a good recovery overall. A lot of these runs might have been remote reinforcement runs, so be sure that at least 75% or more of your runs are pretty immediate rewards in the ring to keep that value high.
>In other news, I am in the process of setting up an online consult with Dr Kathy Murphy. My vet is on-board with the process and may attend the consult if her schedule allows.>
Super! I am sure you will get useful info.
> I set up my DW at the lowest height at the beginning of August and then Lift started offering stops on the mat. She has never ever been asked to run to and stop on a mat, but now she’s doing it regularly…or she’s breaking stride and trotting.>
Maybe, just maybe, the mat is the wrong training aid for Lift. Before abandoning the RDW training, maybe take the mat out and do other things to see if she runs 🙂
> Should I try a 2o2o DW or something else like a 4 on DW? I was chatting with Kory Kaye at the trial last weekend and she asked why I wouldn’t try a 4 on DW if she has that for the teeter and has started offering it on the mat at the end of the DW. I hadn’t considered an option other than running or 2o2o for the DW before. What do you think?>
I think a 4on for the DW is doable, but getting her to drive all the way to the end and not stop short is hard (same with the teeter, but the end of the teeter is probably easier for the dog to define and easier to maintain).
But what if we removed the mat and just let her run through the plank to a target on the ground. Maybe over a little stride regulator thing to the MM or a thrown reward or over a low bar or into a tunnel (I have also used a flyball jump as the target) The goal is to keep her head down so she is striding low and not leaping upwards (and a stride regulator on the plank can help that a lot too). Using a behavior chain to run through can be both an effective way to teach the RDW and also a heck of a lot more fun/less ocnfusing for her!
Let me know what you think!
Tracy
>> She and her dog were NOT ready to be at a show. I had a long talk with her and convinced her to run the dog FEO.>>
Good for you! I am sure the dog appreciated your help!
>Does he need the snuffle mat *before* the run?
Well I’ve used it before every run for StrykR and it has really helped him (but he is more soft and worried about all the other dogs in close space and rather than resource guard it, it keeps him focused) so Since PoweR can get over aroused by the ring and all the commotion I thought I’d try it to keep him a little zen.>He did well with it and he was not overaroused by the ring. So it might be a winner! Or you can try a few runs without it – any difference, for better or for worse? He will let us know 🙂
>Moving to the entry gate – that is a tight little channel!
Hum which of the volume dial games do you think I should try in the chute area next time?>Does he do spins in tight spaces? Or get up on his hind end to do high 5s? Or backing up, if there is no one behind you.
>Side note: He was a little distracted by loud deep bark.
I didn’t even catch that the bark was what he was noticing!>That is why it was great you got video!! In the moment, I am sure your brain totally filtered it out. But he did need a moment to sort it out, which he did like a champ!
> And also so he automatically looks at you when the leash comes off.
Yes I NEED to put more work into that.>It is super fun and really easy to add before every little training thing or any time the leash comes off.
>I was so afraid the judge was going to yell at me for playing on the Start line. Also in the run when she whistled, I did look at her because I had no idea what I had done wrong. Turns out she was mad because the timer did not set the buzzer for 45 seconds so we were a little over and she wanted me to get out.>
Eww that is a bummer that she was so unpleasant. Frustrating for sure! But you still made it a lovely vibe for PoweR 🙂
>I want to make sure that I don’t just throw the toy in his face when I’m trying to keep him entertained.>
You can keep reminding yourself to drag the toy away from him, he likes that 🙂 and also add the engaged chill game so you don’t always have to engage, sometimes the 2 of you can just stand there 🙂
>t it isn’t his most favorite of rewards that would be the Manners Minder.>
We can – and should – be using the MM as part of his remote reinforcement education! I know you have started it but I can see it being what is waiting for him at the end of the run when he is running for real 🙂 Obviously we won’t be clicking it or making it beep LOL but we are totally going to use his highest value obsession – oops I mean highest value reward 🙂
>I need to figure out just how early to get him out, or if I need to warm him up and put him away for a while and get him out just before his run instead of having him outside the ring for a period of time like I did.>
This is why the engaged chill game is critically important – it is nearly impossible in agility to know precisely when to do each step of getting ready to go into the ring. Things move faster, but also things grind to a halt and things get delayed. No worries, though, if he is fluent with each game including engaged chill. If you get to the ring too early, you can just chill 🙂 Again, it is a trained behavior so it needs to be worked on at home and in class, but it will pay off a LOT during the unpredictable moments leading up to the run.
> The judge did tell us that she would not tolerate us running out into the middle of the ringer the other side of the ring if we were running FEO that we had to start at the start line.>
Is that the actual rule in AKC? I will have to go check. It is not the rule in other organizations.
T
Hi –
>Should I abandon the snuggle all together or use it at FF to give the idea ?>The theory behind a snuffle mat is to give the dog an enjoyable, relaxing outlet for olfaction in the form of sniffing around for food. So you will need to observe exactly what he is doing: is he actively sniffing to find the treats, really burying his nose in it? If so, then maybe it is a true decompression.
If he kind of plucking treats out slowly, but still looking around or scanning the environment? If so, maybe it is *not* a decompression and not useful. Other things can be a decompression, such as shredding a toy or repeating licking or chomping something (chew bone or ball or something). Or sniffing for treats tossed in the grass.
T
Very cool games here 🙂 He did great of course – he was able to use what he already understood and apply it really well to different contexts as well as expand on it.
A couple of things the video shows that might not have been as obvious in the moment:
During the toy countermotion games, he was turning to his left pretty consistently… even when handler position and motion indicate a right turn (:24). When changing the turn direction (whether it is after a bunch of left turns, or having him turn towards a crowd of people and not away) you can exaggerate the line to help indicate the right turn there.And on the rear crosses – the toy placement was doing the heavy lifting to get the turn away on one jump, it is really hard to get a rear cross on one jump when starting with the dog. The handling didn’t really indicate a rear cross (2:45, 2:53) so be sure to get right on the RC line on those and, with the toy on the ground, balance with not doing RCs. We don’t want general pressure towards the jump or something interesting on the other side to cue the RC, so the balance will smooth that out really well. We have a bunch of RC stuff to play with so we can do it there 🙂
Sounds like camp was both fun and worthwhile!!!
Tracy
Hi!
>Yes, I agree he was tentative during the wrap verbals. I’m not sure if this was everything that was going on in his head, but we were playing on and off between some rain yesterday, which did help cool things off a bit, but we started that game right as it started drizzling. Keeper is not a fan of rain. I think that’s why he ran for the door, but I wanted to see if he would work through it.>
Could all be part of it! You can engage with play and tricks before asking for skills – that will center arousal and engage for the game.
>Collar grabs are another enormous challenge with him.>
You can change when and how you hold the collar in situations that require it. If he is moving away from you recing for it: don’t reach for it 🙂 You can bring him into a fun lineup position (at your side or between your feet), put a finger on the collar, then immediately throw something and release him to go get it.
You can also teach him to shove his head through a leash opening – that is a very fun way to make it a trick to come back and not skitter away, without you having to reach for him or move him by the collar.
Here are ideas:
>We are in another puppy class with a couple of his siblings, and I have been very hesitant to work with toys there as it takes him way over threshold.>
Toys might be a great motivator for keeping him engaged, and using a combination of toys and food might be the sweet spot.
> He is running over to them any time there’s a break in action and it is impossible to get him back with the whole collar grab thing. And it’s all very stressful. >
Yes, it can totally get very stressful so dial it back: if he has a history of leaving (for any reason), dial back the level of challenge and work on leash with super high rates of success and far simpler behaviors. Do short & sweet sessions then get him outta there to rest for a bit. Working with siblings close by is hard enough, and then if there is an element of trying to get him back… yes, that will create all sorts of stress and it is also his way of communicating that being off leash in that environment is simply too hard for now.
> But I also think as he’s building more understanding for agility he will be less likely to run off as I think part of it is avoidance when he doesn’t know what to do yet.>
Yes, which is why in that very hard environment, you want to ask him to do only the things he knows how to do. Don’t leave room for things he doesn’t know how to do, or might fail – the environment with other dogs that he has to ignore is really hard!
>I am wondering if some of this stuff is adolescence, but still a big training focus right now!>
Yes, adolescent brain development is definitely in play – and they get stressed more easily, they have more ‘approach’ behaviors, they take longer to recover, and they are not great at having cognitive decisions override impulses. All of that is normal 🙂 Adolescents are also in an important period of developing associations, such as the vibe of a training environment, etc. That is the main reason why I suggest easy/fast/fun games in the class that are only on leash for now – the creates a super position association in the environment and takes out the stress association of having to ignore other dogs (littermates!) or being caught with collar grabs. It all comes together pretty quickly when the positive associations have been established (and those associations are far more powerful than operant learning/decisions at this stage :))
Keep me posted!
Tracy
