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Hi!
>>So I should actually be running ahead of her and hoping she’ll follow by taking the jumps when I just want her to GO ahead? For some reason I thought I should be behind her sending her ahead of me on the GO line so that’s why I wasn’t moving much. >
Now that the lines are easier, you can add in the challenge of getting way ahead so she has to find the Go line from behind you. That is harder than it looks!!
>>I’ve found that I can do sequences well but when I move onto a big course, I forget half the handling and just focus on getting the course done clean without applying any of the fancy handling tricks I learned from practicing sequences. This leads to sloppier handling than I’d like so I’m trying to make these handling tricks second nature so I don’t have to specifically think about each one while running a course.>>
One way to get the handling smoother for a full run is to do your course walk through at a run! Practicing without the dog at a full run can lock the handling in much better than practicing it at a walk. So you would be handling your invisible dog, running hard, connected, verbals, etc. It feels weird but it works great!
>>I tried to exaggerate a decel between the jumps since it doesn’t seem like I do it very naturally and I pulled her off of the second jump. So I haven’t really figured out that sweet spot yet. I didn’t include that rep in the video but it was there.>>
Finding the sweet spot is hard with young dogs! One thing that really helps is getting a lot of rewards thrown out ahead, even if you are handling a turn. That builds commitment which then makes handling a lot easier.
>>How do you teach the dog which way to turn so they don’t spin after landing? I hate those spins. They seem to happen a lot in rear crosses.>>
The verbals help but mainly the traditional rear crosses work well when there is handler pressure to the center of the bar of the RC jump. That gives the dog the info to take the jump and turn away for the RC. With youngsters, I like to drive to the center of the bar until I see them liftoff, so I am not accidentally too early and push them off. And lots of reward out ahead helps too.
I also do a lot of turning away on the flat, so the dogs are very comfy turning away in both directions.
Your makeshift wobble board was perfect! It should be loud and a bit unpredictable, which is exactly what it was. A little help to get her on the board is fine, she will offer it more and more as she realizes she gets treats for it. She was terrific here, getting on it from all angles and slamming it around.
Since she was so confident here, you can put it on even noisier surfaces, or put something under it that can make a noise like a soda can or something (and Liberty totally should get some treats LOL!!)
>>The backing-up exercise did not go as smoothly. I couldn’t get her to offer the behavior. >< She might have been tired and done for the night, but also she might need to start back at the flatwork to get her to offer moving backwards, with the treat dropped a little behind your feet so she goes a bit under you to get it, then when she backs up, you can toss the reward for backing up. I think that is on the video I sent, but if not, let me know and I will send one 🙂 Great job here!! Tracy
Hi!
This was a great session! She is so expressive! She was a little surprised at first but then settled into the game beautifully. She really started to lock in at around :50 when you didn’t change your pace or stop moving at all, and she still got it. GOOD GIRL!!!! Nice snappy sits!In the smaller space, you can work this with more excitement by using a tug toy 🙂 And you can have your arms swinging a bit too, as if jogging.
Outdoors, you can add more of your speed but that is probably better to start with food rewards so it doesn’t become toooo challenging.
Great job here!!!!
TracyHi!
Funny, I was working on rear crosses today too, with my 2 youngsters! And RCs are HARD because they are not a natural cue… it is a trained behavior AND we have to cue it right. My session was similar to yours… sometimes I was too far behind or too far away from the RC line, and I got a wrap. Sometimes I turned my feet and pushed off the line, so didn’t get the jump at all. Sometimes I ran the correct line and got it! And so did the dogs LOL!
So if you are too far ahead and turn your feet before she passes you… she will push off the jump and not take it. That is what happened a 1:01.
Most of her questions, though, were when you ran towards the wrap wing and she thought it was a FC wrap towards you.
For example, when you wanted the right turn RCs (closer to the camera), the beginning reps and then at 1:43 and 1:50, you were running towards the left wrap wing so she turned to her left.
Compare that to the reps at 1:56 and 2:05, where you were not too far ahead and ran with pressure towards the center of the bar on the RC jump, so she read it perfectly. Yay!On the left turn RCs (closer to the house), you had really strong lines to the center of the bar of the RC jumps at :28, :38. 1:29 and she was great!
It is a fine balance of not being too far ahead but not being too far behind, and getting her to drive ahead of the jump while you put pressure on the line to the center of the bar. One thing that will help is if you reward out ahead more – no need to worry about a tight turn or the next line, you can place or throw a reward out ahead. That way she will drive really hard to the jump and it will be easier to get on the RC line.
>>Crossing behind me – I was not looking at her & disconnected>>
No worries! You were excited that she nailed the RC!!
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
OMG~ Totally sounds like gunshots. She didn’t seem bothered by it!This session went really well!!
The backsides looked terrific! You should definitely work those with a wing on the entry side – she will only ever see backsides on wing jumps so giving her the visual of a wing will help get her ready for that (or using a barrel if you don’t have a wing :)) Since she did so well, you can see if she will read the backside cue with you further away, maybe heading more to the center of the bar as you cue it. The straight lines were great!
RC video – you turned your feet before she got past you, which pushed her off the line when you are too far ahead. She read you perfectly on both of those reps 🙂 Definitely rewardable!
On the 2nd RC video: You definitely supported her line better with forward motion, so she got it! Yay! You can go in deeper to the tunnel so you would be not quite as far ahead, and able to move forward to support commitment while also running to the center of the bar, which will give earlier RC cues.
FC video:
>We worked on the FC. We really had difficulty with this and when we tried to put it more together we failed each time.>>
Do you mean the wide turn, like on the first rep? Or was she pulling off the jump? The turn was wide on the first rep because you didn’t show the decel til after she took off. On the 2nd rep, the decel was sooner and the turn was already much tighter 🙂 You can start to decel as soon as she lands from the 1st jump, just keep moving forward to commit her in collection before you rotate into the FC.
>>Trying to put it together tool=k a short turn here.
Sounds like there might be one more video? Let me know if there is one more to watch 🙂
Great job!
TracyHi!
Yes, what you are describing might totally be a heat coming on, or general adolescent brain and hormone changes in general. Plus, she has a lower threshold for frustration like in the video where she broke her stay twice and was about to get frustrated…. But you saved the day by doing little tricks for treats 🙂 Smart!!She did well with the toy here in the video! She might have been mixing up focus forward on the toy with the release, which is what led to that little bit of frustration? Meaning, maybe she thought that looking at the toy *was* the release. So you can add some duration to the focus forward on the toy as she offers it to you (but not obsessing on it LOL!)
The other thing that might be easier is to show her the moving target framework with food, dragging a food target of some sort. She is less likely to have BIG MADZ the food is involved, even if there are errors. So attached a paper bowl to a line and slowly dragging it might be the way to start 🙂 Then as she recognizes this framework, you can change it to the toy being in the picture so she doesn’t have to learn the game with a toy. We will want to get the toy involved pretty quickly though, because she might have a pop rocks moment if she thinks that it is a food-only game and it turns out to be a toy game. It is a fine line with these teenagers!!
Nice work here! Keep me posted on how she is feeling so we can play to keep things moving forward in these crazy adolescent times 🙂
Tracy
Hi! You are off to a strong start!!! His wrapping is looking good – I especially liked his left wraps where he was not hitting the barrel LOL!! I think that noise was him touching the barrel on the right wraps? We can help him learn to not touch if it happens on the next session too.
>>this is supposed to be purely verbal only and I’m doing too much body help?
He needs to understand the physical and verbal cues. On this one, the physical cues were starting before the verbals so it was mainly a physical cue session. He did great! So on the next session: hold his collar, say the verbal 3 or 4 times, then let him go – that will really emphasize the verbal cues by having them come before any movement. And, if you start close to the barrel, you probably won’t need to move at al 🙂
Great job!!!
TracyGood morning!
The set point is going well – her head is definitely in a better position with the toy! The start position on the 2nd rep and beyond seemed to be the sweet spot – the first rep was a little too close and she was very excited about the toy LOL!!
>> Feeling like I should try them closer still.
Leave the distance there for now, so we can see how it percolates. This is something to revisit maybe every 3 or 4 days, so we don’t over-tax her body and so latent learning can kick in.
Wind In Your Hair looked great! She did better with more connection of course – when you were looking at her, she was looking ahead. But when you looked ahead (like at :36) she looked at you – so definitely keep emphasizing the connection.
The other thing to emphasize here is rewarding focus forward, by throwing the toy as soon as she looks ahead (instead of when she gets to the jump). That can help with choosing takeoff points too!
You can change up your position too – instead of being ahead of her, start very very close to the barrel so she drives ahead of you to the jump.
>> She is taking off early here too though. This is me being calm about my amazing fast puppy who jumps ugly.>>
It is definitely not ugly! What you are seeing is the early stages of jump education in an adolescent dog. Our goal is to educate her about how to use her body and also how to read handling, which will al come together into good form! Education plus strengthening plus structure are 3 of the main elements of form, so there is nothing to worry about. She is really young so you are in the early stages of education 🙂 and the real conditioning for jumping hasn’t started yet. No worries!!
Great job here!!
TracyHi!
>>You see in the video that we live right next to a school, so I often time the chaos of school pick up/drop off with his training sessions.>>
That is great – built in distractions!!! Yay!
Wind in your hair game – he is doing really well finding the jump! Your timing was good – it looks like as soon as you saw him look forward, you tossed the reward. Super!! My only suggestion here is to have the reward ready to throw in your hand so he doesn’t watch your hand move to your pocket or watch you holding it up 🙂
He looks ready for the next step here of adding more distance between the cone and the jump! You can alternate starting close to the cone so he drives ahead, and sending to the cone so he finds it from behind you.
Nice work helping him with the cone-tunnel discriminations! After the 2nd rep where you showed him the line with a bit of motion… he figured it out and then he was perfect! You can start the next session seeing if he will be able to get it right on that first rep with maybe a tiny bit of motion. Then you can add in the sequence where he goes tunnel then tunnel again! Then the cone wrap.
Strong start to the set point! Yes, the MM will get a bit more trotting for now but that is fine – we are just showing him the setup. Will he let you lead all the way out to the MM and lean down to tap it? That will help him get his head down to look at it. He was being great about ignoring the school people though!!!
How is your moving target pre-game going? We will be adding that here soon and that is when you will see his real power jumping develop 🙂
Great job!
TracyGood morning!
Nice work here on these!The intro to the set point is going really well! The most successful reps where when the MM and toy were further away – remember to not add your movement quite yet 🙂 The toy was definitely the most exciting for her. How is the moving target pre-game going? We are going to bring that in soon so let me know what she thinks of it 🙂
The Wind In Your Hair game is going well too!! She did a great job fining the jump. The most successful reps are where your dog side arm is back a bit so she really sees connection like at :36 and :48. The only blooper where she ran past it was early in the session and your dog-side shoulder was closed forward, breaking connection a bit.
You can throw the reward sooner for these, to reward focus on the line – as soon as you see her looking at the line (before she gets to the jump) throw the toy past it.
The next step you can add to this is starting really close to the wing and staying there… so you work on getting her to drive ahead of you. These reps had you ahead and passing the jump and she was great! Since it went so well, we can hang your position a bit.
So now you can hold position closer to the start wing til she finishes the wrap (rather than send her to it and move away as he is sending). The toy throw is really important on that element: you will want to throw it as soon as she looks ahead (or have it placed on the line) so that she does not look back at you as she gets ahead.Very nice connection on the first reps of the smiley face game!!!
She had some valid connection questions later in the game: the moments at 2:08 and 2:26 didn’t have connection so she didn’t know where to be – she could only really see your back so was guessing about where to be, because it looked like a blind cross when you looked ahead of her like that. When that happens, reset her with a reward because she was not wrong – she was actually correct to read it as a blind cross! Marking her as incorrect /not giving rewards will be confusing for her – so if something goes wrong with handling, assume it was a handler error and either keep going or reward her anyway.You had much better connection at 2:14 and 2:33 and she got it 🙂 To keep that great connection, try to have your dog side arm back to her and not pointing forward because that will reveal the connection really well!
The proofing game started really well. To solidify the verbals even more, you can add in holding the collar longer: hold her and say the verbal 3 or 4 times before letting go, so motion is not what she is following. If you say the verbal and move at the same time, she will process the motion but won’t attach the verbal as well.
Great job breaking it down when she had trouble with the wrap and then the tunnel on the right turn side – that little bit of handling help was very effective there!She did well on the sequencing for the first few reps. She had a valid question about the send to the wing – if your dog-side leg did not move forward, she was unsure if she should go to the wing or not. You can see that at (4:44 and 4:57 and 512 and 5:28). Compare to 4:37, 5:05, and 5:42 where you stepped forward perfectly and she easily went to the wing. Yay!
I think by the time you got to 5:17 in the video, she was mentally tired and the session was going on for too long… by 6:15 she was second guessing herself, definitely too long of a session as you tried to fix it and then there was too much pressure with the collar grabbing, etc.
When she did go in the tunnel at 6:57, for example – you can totally reward her even if she had a question. It is confusing to go in it and not get rewarded, but then also not get rewarded for not going into it either. But mainly – the games are mentally expensive for the pups so I think she was just brain-tired by then.
To help avoid that depletion, set a timer for each session to 2 minutes or less. And take a long break between sessions, and limit the # of sessions. And, since adolescent dog brains do get tired easily (and take longer to bounce back) if you see her start to ask questions or second guess herself, you can end the session. No need to try to finish on a good note as that might result in many more reps. A good game of chase-the-toy is a great way to end when their brains get tired 🙂
Nice work here!!
TracyGood morning!
>for the set point should both heights be the same?
Yes, same height for now and super low or bumps instead of jumps.
>> My 8 month old lab puppy is Terrible about taking things off of counters, tables, shelves etc. and running with them. I know not to chase him but if he has a remote control, glasses or a KNIFE I have to get it from him ASAP! So two issues actually counter, table, whatever surfing and running off playing keep away>>
Two answers for this!
– Establish a trade routine for anything in his mouth. Toys, stolen objects, anything – trade for a treat! Don’t worry about accidentally reinforcing grabbing stuff, because it will work on stopping the keep away and will get fragile or dangerous things back very quickly.
About the counter surfing – because of his age, his drivers license to be in those situations can be suspended 😀 If he is in the kitchen, you can have him on a cot earning treats, or you can have him gated outside of the kitchen and getting treats for being chill… but only total supervision will help for now as you reinforce desired behavior. And if you can’t supervise? No worries, he can be in a crate or somewhere that prevents countersurfing, chewing on a bone 🙂
It can be a bit labor-intensive for now to go the total supervision route, but TOTALLY worth it!!!!Let me know what you think 🙂
TracyHi!
The Wrap versus tunnel game is going well! She had a little trouble getting into the tunnel from that angle – she knew it was NOT the wrap, but couldn’t quite get herself into the tunnel LOL!! My baby whippet is doing the same thing this week, maybe there is something in the air – I am sure she will sort it out (your handling supported it a little more and that really helped).
One suggestion: to really solidify the verbal, you can hold her for longer so she hears it 3 or 4 times before you let her go and start moving. You were letting go as you were saying it or moving before you said it, which means she was cuing off the motion but the verbal was not getting attached as well as it can be.
The set point is going to help her figure out her jumping! She offered some different form here on different reps, which means she was sorting it out.
What was the distance here between the jumps? It might be a tiny bit too wide (maybe 6 inches shorter will be better) and you can also have her front feet closer to the first bump.The most successful reps where when you went to the MM and it was pretty far from jump 2. Yay! She definitely focuses on it and not up at you. I think her best rep might be the one where she broke the stay LOL!!!!
We will keep playing with this to sort out the sweet spot for for (that will also percolate as she grows up). One thing I notice here is that when she is sitting, her back legs are a little out to the side and not fully under her. So to help get her ready for jumping, you can work on a very tight sit where her legs are under her. Getting the tight sit is the first step to super powerful, balanced jumping 🙂
Here is a video of how to get her going on that:
You can scroll through to the demos if you don’t ant to listen to all of my blah blah blah LOL!!!
Great job here!
TracyHi! Welcome back!!!!
>>We worked our left and right verbals with the barrel and that went great. I thought, “Wait, more verbals?” >>
Yes, you might think this “wait, more verbals?” thought a few more times in the next couple of months LOL!!! We need left and right for soft turns, and then a different set for the very tight wraps. Lots of words but TOTALLY worth it based on how fast the whippets go! And I have found that whippets (and lurchers) are actually fantastic with processing verbals even when running hard.
>>A toy was way too much. She, like her mother, looses focus on the training.>>
The toy can be for the in-between moments and also we can work on getting her to be able to maintain a balanced arousal state even when toy is in the picture, so it becomes easier to train with toys.
>> I switched to treats, chose the “choo, choo, choo” for turning to her left, and a tss, tss, tss, to the right. OMG! My pup is brilliant! >>
YES!!! Of course she is brilliant 🙂
>>We had elements of success, but stays, especially for a moving tug? Too many hardwired genetics there!>>
Yes – you might need to do a couple of sessions of just the toy on the ground. Then when you do start dragging it, make it the slooowwwwweeessssstttttt drag ever in the history of dragging toys LOL!!! She will figure it out 🙂
have fun!!
TracyHello! I saw you and Obi in class last night, I am glad he was watching and taking notes LOL!
I agree with you – I love adolescent dogs, even when they wake up some days haven forgotten everything we have done LOL!!! It is fine, I love the cute and goofy 🙂
>> as a neuroscientist I really appreciate the brain development background you remind us of at all times>>
So cool! The neuroscience behind the dog brain and development and process and dopamine and on and on…. I love it all. It has really helped me improve my training. And, the neuroscience makes a great argument about why we need to proceed slowly with our teenagers and not push them too hard 🙂
>>One thing we really need to work on is his forward focus, because he is still much more handler focused and looks to me. The games last night were perfect fit for that>>
Yes- the ‘Wind in Your Hair” games will be what really works the forward focus! Look at the jump, not at the momma 🙂 It will be fun to hear how he does 🙂
Have fun!
TracyHi! He did well here – it is a HARD game!
The Counter cue was easy until you introduced the tunnel, then suddenly it was harder (that is normal 🙂 ). I love how he fixed it at 1:18 and he got the reward! I think you can totally add in a little bit of a FC to help him come around the wing there or even show him your hand with the toy in the gap to help set up the wrap. He was great with the tunnel 🙂 Adding a little more handling is fine, because he will have already heard the verbal without motion then adding the motion will help create the success.
>>At first I was using my collar cue and he was offering but on the last try he decided he didn’t want to do it >>
You can do really quick line ups with the collar holding if it is hard for him: in quick succession, it can be collar-verbal-send. No need for cookies if he is not a fan of eating while his collar is hold.
You can use line up cookies to reset after a error – this can help reduce frustration, which might be why the was not as happy to have his collar held later in the video. Rather than the ‘try again’ marker, which seemed to frustrate him, you can respond to an error with a reset treat at your side followed by the quick collar hold-verbal-send progression. The reset treat will keep frustration low but it is not sooooo motivating to him that he will find it reinforcing for whatever the oopsie was 🙂
I feel your pain about brace for impact with the retrieve LOL For the tugging, you can have him trade for a 2nd toy when he is coming back – this can help him bring the first toy back faster and also prevent the jumping/pummeling 🙂 Trading for a cookie is even easier if he will like it.
>>And for West I have been trying to say counter in a short choppy way but in the beginning I forgot>>
When you shortened it up on the 3rd or 4th rep, it was great – very distinct from the tunnel cue 🙂
Great job here!!!
TracyHi!
I love your new wobble board! Brilliant!! It was hard for her to back away from the cookies (as she exclaimed when she pummeled you in the belly between reps LOL!!) so you can do this sitting down (which will keep her head a little lower making it easier to back up).
The bowl was a good focal point! My only suggestion is to have her back up onto the part of the wobble board that is touching the ground. When she was doing that, it was easier. When she had to step up onto it when she was near the side that was up in the air, she was tending to turn around more and then pummel you 🙂>>For the Rear Cross (wrap away) reps, do I use her wrap verbal along with the physical cue of moving to the center of the bar on the diagonal?>>
Yes you can use her wrap cue with the physical RC cues to the center of the bar.
Great job here!
Tracy
