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Hi!
>Knight at first did not want to go into the tunnel at all. I started doing the pattern game.>
Aha!! I think we have found the pressure point for him – the pressure of the people. Now the goal is to get him relaxed sooner so he is not concerned on those first runs. I am glad the pattern game helped. You can bring him into the ring with the pattern game before asking for an obstacle. As he gets more relaxed, yoyu can ask for a trick or something simple in between pattern game treats… then when he looks REALLY comfy: into the tunnel!
You can also do cookie-chase- recalls through crowds of people: there are people standing around (no obstacles involved) – you toss a good cookie one direction, away from you. Then you run away and call him so he recalls to you past other people. It is a fast & fun game to help get him running and more comfy ignoring people. Agility is one giant recall with obstacles in the way š so this is a good way to build in the other people.
> Saw the issue in class and was able to resolve it. Know we still have a ways to go but there is light at the other end of the tunnel!!!>
So true! Being able to re-create the issue is a big deal! And having him work through it is fantastic!
Tracy
Hi!
>USDAA this weekend ā My plan is FEO with her favorite furry lotus tug. Short sequence, toss toy, leash, out to party. Thereās no food box and I donāt want to dilute the ātoy is a predictor of treat coming upā bit by asking for a 2nd short sequence after tossing the toy just yet (esp not at OTR which is newish to her).
This sounds perfect!
>Liftās countermotion was as good as or better than Kaladinās yesterday! >
Go baby dog go!!! She was showing off some strong skills!
>Lead out/leash stuff ā
She is not comfortable with me slipping the leash off (or unclipping it) when she is in a sit so she will pop up out of it. Iām not sure I want to ask her for a sit and then have her pop up as I take the leash off and then ask for a sit again after her shake. Or did you mean cue her more or less into position without asking for the sit until after the leash is off?>Yes – I was thinking bring her to the line and to her general line up spot, taking the leash off, letting her shake it off… then cue a sit. I am curious to know what she thinks of my idea hahaha!
> So many options!
This is true! And for now, the correct option is important to her… but I don’t think it will be important forever as she learns more about the trial environment.
>Khamsin, Kristin and I are sharing ring time on Friday. I should have entered Lift on Sunday instead of Saturday but Saturday had a better class schedule for her. The weather should be nice and the backyard is drying up so she can decompress zooming around with Kaladin in the afternoon.>
FUN! I think a bit of ring time on Friday will not exhaust her for Saturday š Keep me posted!
Tracy
He did great here! The fantastic stay made it very very easy for him to be successful. YAY!!! You can keep stretching the limits of this: jog past the jump til you are on the takeoff side, getting further and further past it before releasing. Be sure to look back and point back to the landing side of the jump as you release (and toss the toy behind you to the landing spot to encourage him to drive to the jump with all the countermotion).
Great job!!!
TracyHi!
>Two words: Meat. Balls.>
MAGIC!! LOL!!!
>mixed up the rewards a bit for class this week and it was DA BOMB! Yes, he knew I had the food on me for most of the class but wow did that motivation come back with turkey meatballs in play.>
Variety is the spice of life! And also – surprises (which can come in the form of unexpected variety of foods) are known to create dopamine spikes. Those spikes create more than just learningā¦ dopamine creates more motivation and more movement! (Like me moving fast to the coffee maker in the morning to get my morning dopamine spike. Thanks, coffee!) Dopamine is a very busy neurotransmitter LOL
So a lot of mixing things of will help – for my foodie dogs, I use a combination of string cheese, beef/pork meatballs from Walmart, scrambled eggs (sometimes with a tiny tiny bit of bacon rolled in), turkey meatballs, steak, and rotisserie chicken š It really depends on what I grab at the store (but rotisserie chicken is a MUST for competition, according to the dogs š )
The other thing that helps – other people’s food rewards. Doesn’t matter if it is the same darned string cheese, but it if comes from SOMEONE ELSE dogs can often be insane for it LOL!
He did really well in class – he was blasting through the weaves like you mentioned, so the effort rewards were good. We donāt want to deflate him when he is amped up! We might seem some accuracy errors as he adds in even more speed, so you can break the skill down by making the entry easier (or opening the weaves up if they are channels). Later in the video you supported his weaves by staying closer, which totally helped!
>The opening 1-3 was supposed to be a serpentine to threadle. He missed the serp but I just kept going because as I suspected (and I was right after watching the video) that I was possible not really cuing the serp and actually looked a lot more like my threadle cue. Yep, watched video and for sure that looked like my threadle.>
Yes, it looked threadley š And also because he is really small, that 2nd jump is a definitely backside push for him particularly when he is coming into it without movement from jump 1. A big dog will land out there facing the correct side of 2, but a small needs a backside push like you showed him later in the session.
>Then at the end I wanted to work on having no snacks on me and practice his GO GO GO so I gave the bag to the instructor. I was not very sneaky and he knew she had them for sure.>
I agree this is good practice, it is a version of remote reinforcement! And not being sneaky is fineā¦ I am quite sure his nose knew exactly where the meatballs were at all times LOL!!!
>I think it was still good practice to have him work on that focus forward and that itās rewarding to leave me behind. >
1000% agree! He worked through the challenge really well! And you can add the super high value foods to remote reinforcement games too, building up to meatballs waiting outside the ring and him working without any food in the ringā¦ and even build up to working for the fur tug toy in the ring and meatballs outside of it.
>That trial I was going to enter in March turned out to be full, but Iām on the wait list. >
Thatās a bummer! Now that the weather is improving, hopefullyā¦ any road trips you can take? AKC FEO is pretty similar to UKI except that you cannot throw the reward.
Great job here!
Tracy
Hi!
>I have now started back chaining it. I didnt want to do this until she was confident going on to the top. So have started at the top of the down ramp and then starting to move back along it. Only two run down per session.>
Yes, back chaining will definitely help. The other option is to take it apart and place the planks on lower supports – this is actually a really important step to build confidence even though it is a big pain to take it apart.
>Jumpers first jumpers had too many tunnels 7 in a row. she went into the wrong end of one my fault but then was convinced another tunnel didnt make sense. lots of dogs had this issue.>
7 tunnels in a row? Yes, my dogs also would be sure that I was making a mistake. That doesnāt make sense LOL!!
Run 1 – she is doing a great job of working ahead of you here! She is finding the line to the tunnels out ahead almost perfectly and only had one small questions going from the tunnel to the jump at the end.
Run 2:
>jumpers c meant to have 7 tunnels in a sequence>She actually did well with the tunnels! You sent her to the wrong end on one of them as you mentioned (your arm got too high and pointing ahead, which turned your shoulders and feet to where she went). And then for the next tunnel, your position on the line cued the jumps. She was listening! The rest looked good.
>2nd starters saturday very hot>
This is the same as the first video you posted, let me know if it is supposed to be a different one.
On all of the videos – she is ahead of you from the very beginning, so keep working the start line stay so you can be ahead on the early section of the course. And doing lots of training runs to add the stay and reward her – this will become especially important as she gets to the higher levels.
>what I need to work out is how to make collection ?weaves fun for my dogs so they enjoy the same way they enjoy running to a tunnel.>
Use channel weaves with the reward placed out at the end (or make your 2x2s into channels). Start the channels very wide so there is almost no collection, and it is all fun fun fun š Then very gradually close them to get the weaving but they are still really fun š
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Good morning!
>Lift was raring to go but I also wanted to work on start lines a bit more so I settled for some crooked sits as a step up from the spin and go routine.>
Raring to go is a perfect time to ask for and reward some stays! And crooked sits are fine, you can always refine the later on.
One thing that might help is bringing her to the line on leash like you probably would at a trial – the leash ioften cues part of the line up process. When she is off leash and you ask for her to line up, she is facing you and barking so you can try having her on leash, doing a line up, then part of the reward is the leash comes off. She might need to do the actual sit after the leash is off (to provide a shake off moment) and that is fine š
>I need to remember to pause in the leadout so she has time to process before I release her.>
Yes – she watches you as you lead out (good girl) so taking a moment to re-connect and cue her to look at her line will help her get the line on the release.
On the first video, everything is looking really good! You can add more cues to the tunnel before she enters –
For example at :38, she exited straight looking at the line to the jump backside (yay!) so you can call her before she enters the tunnel so she exits looking at the front side. Then when you want the backside, you can either say nothing or you can give her a go and backside cue to support the backside line.
For the Left cues at 1:51 – the verbal seemed timely but the judge was yelling š so you can help her by using a brake arm and also move away sooner so she gets even more info before entering.
>Liftās 2nd turn was the last of the class and we were running a bit late so there is plenty of activity as the new class was coming in.>
Plenty of activity is GREAT and so was having 85 peoples out there changing bars as she was coming inā¦ very trial-like especially for preparing to run first in her height class which will probably happen a lot š
The handling went well here too! She is showing really good countermotion commitment on both runs here on the backsides, especially the wrap with the FC!
>Looks like Lift is either 1/3 or 1/2 of her classes this Saturday so that should ease her into running at On the Run. I do plan on doing more USDAA with her in the future so I have my measuring form printed outā¦and should probably just stash it in my bag so I donāt forget it.>
Sounds good! The USDAA courses I have run lately feel old school (in a good way) compared to the UKI courses: very logical for the dogs and distances that are also good for young dogs. They donāt have the same course design rules about angles of approach to contacts and tunnels, so I in each trial I have talked to the judges about dangerous angles for young dogs (especially to tunnels(!) but also to contacts, long jump, etc) and gotten then changed. So if you see anything weird, definitely say something because the judges are receptive to changing things, thankfully š
Have fun!
Tracy
Good morning!
>Unfortunately I donāt know the answer to that. these are few and far between.>
Hopefully they get a lot of good feedback and decide to do them a lot more often. It is really great for dogs learning how to run at trials.
>He did fairly well with the ring crew so is it time to make them more distracting ā maybe food bowls in their laps?>
I agree, he did pretty well here!! The beginning was the hardest part:
>that probably got him a bit amped up, hence the broken start line>
Yes, he had a little trouble on the start line. I think his response was more of a āthis is really hardā response, a bit of stress: he did the full body shake then took off. It could have been a combination of waiting for the other dog to be finished and him seeing the ājudgeā nearby and the ring crew person by the weaves was very visible too. So donāt make any changes yet to the beginning of the course in terms of making it harder.
He seemed sniffy in the middle section of the course, which seemed unusual for him. Maybe something just smelled really good or someone dropped treats? Or maybe he felt the pressure of the ring crew person? But it seemed unusual so nothing to really be concerned about.
So 2 next steps for the ring crew can be:
– have them get up and move around as if walking to set a bar, then reward him for moving past them (a food bowl in their laps might be too big of a leap for now :))
– keep them sitting quietly but he runs with the reinforcement not in your hands or pockets: you can ask a classmate or instructor to toss the reward in for you, or you can do little blasts of the sequence past ring crew with the reward outside the ring, then run out to get it, then back in for another little blast, etc.When he can do each of these separately, we will put them together: distracting ring crew with no food in your pockets or hands š
>Trying hard not to grab his collar ā giving him the responsibility for sticking with me ā habits are hard to break!>
Yay! And it is a good reward opportunity – sticking with you and ignoring the ring crew/instructor during those re-set moments when you are working the course.
>Have to build those treadle wraps, pretty sure itās a skill that Iām going to need,he does have the ability to get ahead of me!>
He did well working through that! Yes, they are getting more and more common on courses lately so it is a good skill to have š
Nice job here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Thanks for this video!
>I actually donāt think I had problems on soft turns! Yay!>
Super!!!
For the backside wraps:
Looks like the same issue she was having on the footing at the trial – she could not work out the footing and mechanics (lots of shift into the hind end) to set up the jumping, especially while you were running. She looks at it, canāt sort her hind end, goes around it (a good self-preservation choice!!)She is not really using her hind end here on the mats, she has more of a short up and down motion and less of an extended running motion and striding into the jump – not sure if she was trying to balance on the mats or if she needs a massage person to see if something is tight or restricted (it is that time of year when our dogs all get tight due to the cold weather) or both.
She could do it when you were not moving (:16, :28 and :42), which lends support to the theory that she canāt process the footing, footwork, and your motion all at once. Lowering the bar helped, and you can add decelerating into the cue and then walking out of it rather than running the whole time for now. And I think wrapping her feet for grip will give her more confidence on the mats – since running on mats is likely something you will want her to do, I highly recommend wrapping to give her more grip and confidence on it.
Her only other question was at :35 – you were early on the cue and accidentally pinged her off the line with a sudden decel and turning your feet the other way before she had turned to the backside š
Let me know what you think!
Tracy
I think Leslie is an absolute rock star! And I have heard great things about the class. Highly recommend!
Hi!
>
Would I do this on a curve or straight line or both?>Both! You can do an entire course, lay game style š and lots of rewards.
Iām pretty positive weāve done this grid before so Iāll look my notes up on this one. Would you add motion to this one too?>We did the accordion grid here and yes, add motion:
The trial is the weekend before the Invitational ā March 22-23. Itās at Canine Sports Zone. >Good footing there!
>The course designer is Laura Grosser from Germany. Iām not familiar with her but I figured sheās from Germany so hopefully sheās good lol. >
Expect German judges to put up highly technical courses š But for FEO, maybe you can make up your own lines? Loretta Zich is very nice!
T
Hi!
>No it does not have a food reward box option. >
You can ask the local UKI hosts to add one! It is really easy to do.
>Not sure with UKI rules if I run a NFC run or mulligan if I can just go to outside the gate give him a treat and then go back in.>
For NFC runs – no, you canāt leave the ring then come back in. Mulligan runs are not official UKI runs, so I bet you can ask the trial host and judge if you can go in and out for food!
>Forgot to say that this is a RUN THROUGH so food will be allowed in the ring. The RUN THROUGHS is to give us insight of what Speedway is since it has not been run in this area.>
Ah! Perfect!!!! So you can start with food, then do some remote reinforcement runs and see how he feels! And I hear Speedway is really fun!!!
Tracy
Hi! Super nice session here!!!
>I was working on getting to take off side before he jumpedā¦.so a little of the counter motion. >
Mission accomplished! You were on the takeoff side on most of the reps and looked back at landing when you released – perfect! He seemed to have no questions about taking the jump even with the countermotion.
He didnāt always know which side of you to be on when he exited, so he defaulted to the blind cross side when I think you wanted him to come between you can the jump (like at :41 for example). When you added more connection, he found the line you wanted very easily (like at :51 for example).
> I seem to have a hitch in my motion when I am releasingā¦didnāt intend for that.>
I thought you did just fine! Maybe the hitch you felt was you just being sure to connect and look at landing? No worries!
Since this went brilliantly, you can add more motion! His stay looks really strong so you can job through the game rather than walk, and see how he does. If jogging is fineā¦ try running! Fun!
Nice work š
TracyHe is getting the idea of he stay with the tossed reward! And it looked like he was having fun! Tons of success!
Be sure to break the session up to mix in toy play and releases forward to you. He kinda mentally wandered after the stretching moment at about :45, so you can break things up with play after every 2 of 3 stays. Since this went really well, you can add in toy play! The toy play can be before the session and during breaks, and I bet you can also use the toy as the reward you throw back to him.
The threadle wrap foundation looked really strong too – he seemed to have no trouble turning away from you as you were moving forward. Since. That went so well, you can totally move to the next steps and add the barrel!
Great job!
TracyHi!
She is so cute with her serious expression when she was watching you put the toy down at the beginning, then looked back at it as you lined her up.
This session went great too! I agree, she seems to have the concept. The training youāve done inside has helped, and also your high energy response when rewarding her totally makes an impact. Yay!
>And when she broke her stay a few times, she wanted to default to the wrong side of the jump, which to me says she is actually following the cue when I do release her.>
Yes! When she moved before the release, she was going to the backside (which is the line supported by how you were moving). But she got the cued threadle correctly every time when she released on cue. So the only suggestion there is to toss a reward back to her for the stay more, mixed in with the rewards for releasing to the threadle. She was raring to go, so holding the stay was harder especially with the toy on the ground – pumping up the tay value will totally help that!
And the threadle looked strong – the next step with the threadle and serp is to oh-so-slowly add your motion of moving through the line while you release her.
Great job!
Tracy
