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Hi!
>Florida Trials!!!!! OMG – super fun!!!!!!!
I can make the USDAA trial mid January! What days are you going? I can do Sat & Sun for sure and can even see if I can get Friday off.>Sadly I can’t go that weekend – I have a commitment in Virginia on the 18th 🙁 But I am going to ask around and see what other trials are coming up that haven’t been posted yet. I might be down there for a full month so fingers crossed we can find something for the Baby Boston and Baby Whippet Trial Tour LOL!
>the one entry that is hard for her is the “easy” entry of 11 oclock for on-side weaves.
That soft-sided entry is often the hardest!! You can put a wing of a jump on pole 2 to help her see it:
>We haven’t done any obstacle/wing to weaves or weaves to an obstacle yet and I’m still using the MM so we may not be quite ready to try them in the ring but I will start working on those pieces.>
Definitely add a wing before the weaves now, and you can ‘hide’ the MM behind another wing to start fading it.
Could I ask some questions about the weaves progression?
>When we go to the next step of the 2x2s – 6 poles & add 4 poles, is it ok if I use my regular (non-2×2) 6 weaves for poles 1-6 and use the 2x2s for poles 7, 8, 9, 10? I only have 1 set of 2x2s. If I do use the regular weaves for poles 1-6, I’ll give her a session or 2 of 6 poles only on the new weaves so she is familar with them.>
Absolutely!
>Also, I need to go back and do some of the ‘Find Em lessons. When I do, should I make the weaves easier & angle to 2x2s to match the lessons or should I stay where we are now with the weaves & add in those challenges?>
Do a session with the poles a little easier (because other variables have gotten harder). And if she is fine? You can make the next session back to where her weaves normally are.
>Is there an advantage to try again with the channels and see if I can work both track simultaneously again?>
There is no advantage – I find that the dogs all choose their method by this point 🙂 She has chosen the 2x2s and that is great!
>>We tried the Releases with Volume Dial & All Business. I think she’s going to be a combo. Volume Dial on the way in the ring (it’s fun and it doesn’t seem to put her over the top) and All Business at the startline.>>
These went great! The look on her face during the volume dial lead outs was HILARIOUS! So intense and maybe a little bit of “mom is nuts” ha!!
Since she did well with both, you can use both and see how it goes. My guess is in the trial ring, volume dial will be toooooo much 🙂 But you can do it in training to simulate the internal state of high arousal she will feel in the ring! Then as you suggested, do it on the way to the start line but then be all business on the lead out 🙂 It might change as she gets more experienced, but I think that is a great plan!
Tracy
Thanks for the maps! Nice courses!
So if I have this straight:
Jmp to tunnel was a happy thing – even if it was up close to the gate and the people & dogs.
But the 2 jumps through that box to the teeter was icky? It was kind of a weird start, not a lot of flow.That is good to know for planning – the main goal is to get him moving as soon as possible, towards obstacles he likes (tunnel, contacts). At trials for now, skip any jump-jump-jump openings that turn him to the crowd… or maybe anything that doesn’t immediately lead to a favorite obstacle. Let’s build up his love for being in the competition ring before tackling the icky starts 🙂
Tracy
Hi!
>I had not intention of sending her backside but that’s apparently exactly what I did. 🙂
The good news about Lu is that she does pretty much exactly what you cue her to do… at 1000 MPH. So be really precise about your line up positions so she knows where to be. Also, you can consider releasing her with a jump verbal or directional so even if she is not lined up perfectly, she still gets it right. For example – if my dog is facing the wrong line but I say the front side left wrap verbal, he will most likely go for the front side left wrap.
Thanks for the map!
>My plan was to run 1-7 then reward. I thought we might have an issue 6-7 but nope LOL. Then start with a wrap like I did in the video at 8 and continue out to reward at the end. So really not to plan much but she ran it perfect.>
Nothing ever goes perfectly to plan with young dogs but I think you did a great job supporting her and making her first trial experience in a fabulous one 🙂
>I”ve been trying really hard to stay extra connected with her but I’ll also have to walk it better telling her what she needs to do before she goes in the tunnels.>
The other thing to do is plan to NOT run as fast and get as far ahead up the big lines. That is hard for her in practice, so in a trial setting you will really want to be closer to the line so she can see the connection more clearly. It is a hard balance because you like to run fast (and you are good at it) plus she is fast – so you will need to fake being slow for a while as she gets more used to bigger courses. You will be able to go at normal Chaia speed soon 🙂
Tracy
Hi!
The first run on this video had the opening line to the blind – this is another good spot for exit line connection – you can see him jump up on the exit of the FC at :09. And you can send to the tunnel from much further away to get the BC , more on that below 🙂>We really need to work on tightening up that wrap in sequence 4. It did improve with repetition. I need to learn how to keep the forward drive while cueing collection for a tighter turn.>
The trick is going to be starting your deceleration sooner and keeping it separate from the rotation. Ideally, as he is over the jump before the wrap jump, you start to slow down but keep moving forward/facing forward. Then when he collects, you rotate and exit with big exit line connection back to him. If you decel AND rotate at the same time, he is likely to pull off the jump.
What was happening on the first couple of reps at :22 & :38 was that the decel was late – you ran really accelerated until he was more than halfway to the wrap jump, so he thought (correctly) that he should jump straight. The turn cues started after he made a takeoff decision, so he coudln’t turn til after landing.
Then as you exited the FC, he could not see connection so he drifted really wide waiting for more info to see where you wanted him for the next line.
He did start jumping tighter at :57 and 1:15, but adding the decel much sooner followed by the exit line connection will get a nice tight turn each time 🙂
>Sequence 5 showed me how far ahead I’d need to be to get in a double blind cross at 3-4 then 4-5 then again from 6-7. Ugh that was hard!!!>
OMG yes, the double blinds are so hard! You can send to the tunnel from further away, and you can also show the blinds quicker by keeping your arms in tighter to you (bent at the elbows rather than fully extended) so you can make very fast connections (it is not the arm change that gets the side change).
>The nicest line might have actually been the blind at 3-4 with the rear at 5. It still gave me time to blind 6-7.>
I agree! That was very smooth!!!
Going back down the big line to the tunnel, to drive him ahead: look down towards him (connect to his butt LOL!) and not up and ahead. Looking at him even if you are behind will support the line and he can see a lot of it peripherally.
>Then I got creative and thought it would be fun to test his send to the backside of 6 in sequence 4.>
Easy peasy!
The backside at the end of the long line looked great – you had clear position and connection, and he had no questions. Super!!Great job here!!!
TracyLooking at the handling stuff 🙂
Great job with the MM on the end of the line! He drove ahead really well. The next step is to fade the MM – get it further and further away, and go to a thrown reward.
The opening of run 1 looked great! It seemed odd that he came back out of the tunnel on run 2? But he didn’t do it again, so no worries 🙂
After the backside FC on 3, make a big exit line connection so he knows where to be – he jumped up at you at :27 because the connection was unclear so he didn’t know where to go.This happened a few times on this video and in the next one, so here is what I mean by exit line connection:
The dogs don’t cue off of our hands on the side changes – they cue off seeing the connection and the front of our chest. It is important to keep our hands out of the way and to let them see our eyes 🙂
Nice hustle up the big lines! You can add more connection on those too – Running the go line with bigger connection will help with the bar (2nd run). When you are ahead, run with your head turned back to him. Even if he is ahead of you, connect to his butt 🙂 He can see a lot of that peripherally so it helps support the lines
3rd run – Using a bigger exit line connection and earlier tunnel verbal at :40 and 1:00 will help so he doesn’t jump up. Great job setting the line from the tunnel exit when you were handling on the right – you can go even closer to the tunnel exit to get him onto the line sooner, so you can accelerate up the line sooner as well!
Changing sides to handle from the left on that sequence didn’t get the exit of the tunnel set as well, so the line was wider. He did a great job figuring out the line though!!
Nice work here!
TracyHi!
Very cool to see the before, during, and after of each run! I think he was in a really good state of focus and arousal for each run here.T2B looked really good – he seemed ready to go in the ring and executed everything you asked him to do. Very nice reset after the first reward to get smoothly back into the line!
PJWW also went well!
> I loved his line to the first tunnel but changed my handling plan and did a pretty poor job of timing my landing side blind.>
It was not so much of a timing issue as a connection issue there. Yes, it can come sooner but more importantly: Use more exit line connection as you finish the blind, using your eyes very directly to establish the new side and you can put your opposite arm (right arm in this case) across your body to push the dog side shoulder back. Big connection will get the job done, even if the cross is late 🙂
The next line looked good!
I am not sure what happened at about 2:18 when it looked like you were going to play with the toy but then you didn’t – he was confused too LOL!> We definitely need to work our “go” on long lines because I can’t outrun him.>
You can use UKI for this: a helper can come in the ring and throw the reward for you!
> And then I caved to peer pressure and decided to try JWW for “real”. >
Tell anyone who pressures you that I will come kick their butts LOL! There are 2 more steps for the FEO progression before you will want to try anything for real – empty hands (toy in pocket) then in and out (no toy in the ring but very short bursts of the course). Plus, he ideally can sometimes run full courses in training without a toy.
I think running this for real made you tentative (meaning, you were being careful and trying to Q?) so there were a lot of rear crossy moments. That caused him to look at you a lot. Then at the weaves you were a little disconnected (high arm blocking connection) and then disconnected while he was in them. You left the weaves then ran more like your normal self – faster and more connected, so he ran the ending better too.
On the last run (FEO) you were running more like yourself so he ran better too. You were a little disconnected and pointing up high to the weaves, so he missed them here too (looking at you).
Comparing to the runs where he *did* get the weaves:
In T2B at 2;41 – you were very connected and not pointing
In PJWW at 2:24 – you were very connected with very minimal pointing
Also in those 2 runs – you were not ahead of him at the weave entry, he was driving ahead more on those lines.When he did miss the weaves, you were not really connected and your arm was up high, plus you were ahead of him. So definitely plan to cue the weaves with connection and not pointing, and let him drive ahead into them.
Since he did really well in terms of being ready to run, I think the next steps are to add the empty hands step of the NFC progression. When he is happy with that, you can go to the in-and-out! That will help you get to the running for real stage 🙂
Great job here!
TracyGood morning! Thank you for the update!!!
>Took Knight to an UKI trial this weekend where we train at and ran a speedstakes 2 run and agility 1 and 2 runs along with mulligans. The speedstakes 2 run was on Saturday. During the speedstakes 1 run I brought him into the building where the runs (Crating was in a separate building) were occurring and just let him hang out. >
Terrific!
>Speedstakes 2 I took him into the middle of the trial where a tunnel was. He run through the tunnel over 3 jumps into the other tunnel and over 1 jump an out we went. >
Yay! Question – for the last jump, was it you decided to leave or was it him? Was the jump heading towards the exit gate? Or back towards the middle of ring?
>Mulligan run for speedstakes I repeated and instead of going out of the ring we continued and he ran with no issue. >
Perfect!!!
And it was a short day, just those runs? Did you have the toy in the ring, or no? I am just trying to track where he was successful and where he had questions.
>On Sunday, Agility 1 run I took him into the back of the building and going through a tunnel, weaves poles jumps, teeter, tunnel and jump and over the Aframe and took him out of the ring. >
And since he loves his contacts, was he his normal fast and happy self?
>The mulligan run I started at the dog walk which went perpendicular and into the tunnel and repeated the first run. Instead of finishing at the end of the Aframe I ran him took him over a couple jumps. >
And since he was in the groove, he was happy to do the jumps? Were the jumps near the entry/exit gates where the other people/dogs were?
>Since I still had time I brought him where the start line was which was near the gating an ran over the jump an into the tunnel. No issues. >
Awesome! Was he acting like his normal spicy self? Did you start this section without a stay (using a send-and-go on the jump)?
>Agility 2 I wanted to try the start line and it was 2 jumps going to the gating and then a 180 to go over a jump and teeter. Well this did go well. He jumped the first 2 jumps not happy an went to the exit gate.>
So these 2 jumps created a line facing the crowd/exit gate?
> He was a happy boy after he exited. The mulligan I started at the teeter and ran him and he flew. >
Same course, different start place (higher value obstacle) so he was happy 🙂
>(Wish I could attach the pdfs of the runs for you to see.)>
You can email them to agilityuniversity@gmail.com!
>Outside of the ring I did pattern games, spins, jumping up for food. When I took him into the ring and ran him, I could not get the collar off of him quick enough. He just wanted to go.>
This is good!! You might need to get one of those side clip leash/collar combos where you basically press a button and the leash/collar falls away 🙂
>Overall he was a happy boy all weekend. He has come a long way. Now just have to get him over the start line issue. Hopefully we can discuss tonight.>
Awesome!! And yes, we will discuss and plan.
>A thought came to my mind and wanted to pass by you. Everything I did the last two days, he started with tunnels, teeter, dog walk. The one time he failed was near the gating with the jump. What do you think if next time (in January’s UKI trial) I go in the back and have him do a jump tunnel scenario?>
Two thoughts for you:
– you will want to build a long history of happy fun times in the competition ring, so keep doing what you were doing to get all the happy runs here. That will include starting with a tunnel or contact and running away from the crowd to get him going
– since he seems fine with doing jumps near the ring entry/exit after he is already in run run run mode… you can do a tunnel-contact line then circle back and ask for a jump towards the ring exit (kind of like where he had trouble here) and see how it goes. That way you can start to build in start line stuff in a really positive way, rather than at the very beginning where he has the most trouble with the pressure of the start line. And you can use that structure to add stays, etc.Let me know if that makes sense! Great job here!!
Tracy
Good morning!
>We did not get much training time this week as there was a Santa Anna Wind event and our power was shut down and we lost internet for several day. The wind also made it hard to train outside.>
YIKES! I am glad your power and internet are back!!! Hopefully it won’t be a crazy weather winter!
>I worked on remote reward with it outside the ring area and start line games as well as how it works to get him to the start line. I was happy with how he worked and his speed.>
He REALLY seemed to like the start line game 🙂 On the 2nd rep, you started the crouch/eye contact/goofy stuff as you moved away, which worked better for him – he had a clear understanding to stay til released, then he EXPLODED onto the course. So fast! Great distance!
On the first rep, he broke the stay – what happened was that you did your lead out like normal, then crouched and moved your arms into sprint position (:25) so it looked just like the physical cues for the release… so he released. It shows us that the physical cues are just as important as the verbal! No worries- the 2nd rep was great! If he breaks the stay during these games, no need to grab his collar – you can just stop moving, have a laugh, bring him back 🙂
You had cookies at the start line here which was good to do, and you can definitely keep mixing in reward at the start line and on the course. To make it true remote reinforcement where you are using the magic cooler 😁 you would start at the cooler then move to the line without cookies at all (then back to the cooler at the end :)) That is something to add in sometimes too!
>We leave town tomorrow and not sure if we will be settled by the time of the zoom meeting. I will try to catch up with it this week. We will have a chance to play games but no agility but lots of distractions. Our training field is also closed until Feb for rereading and repair.>
Safe travels! If you can make it tonight, great! If not, send any questions you want discussed beforehand, or afterwards if we didn’t cover them.
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning! What a great start to her trial career!!
>(even though I was pretty nervous at the beginning lol)>
This is so relatable! It is nerve-wracking to start our baby dogs!
I got a big laugh at all the cameras lined up near the ring entry (you can see them at the start of your video) LOL!!
>Obviously she made the course 50 times harder than I intended but I just went with it >
Wellllll….. the very super good news is that she was entirely engaged and read your cues perfectly. The only spot she had a question was the very end when she was miles ahead and curled in to the tunnel (that last jump was a bit hidden, visually). I think the things that didn’t go as planned were handling cue issues and not Lu doing random things. In fact – I think she found lines here better than she does in practice! Is it possible that the arousal and the pressure of the situation sharpened her focus? Yes! And that is great. Overall a really great run. Fabulous debut!
And I love that you got it from 2 angles!
Start: she got into a stand stay and was very engaged, I love it! The stay position that you released her from just happened to be on the line to the backside, so that is where she went as you stepped forward on the release. Good girl! I don’t think that was what you wanted? But maybe it was – it was hard to tell because you were brilliant about going with it and connecting and continuing.
Looking at the jump she missed at :31 after the first tunnel: From the handling perspective, you were too far ahead of her, going really fast, and not quite connected enough to show a baby dog the line. I think to get that jump, she would need to push away to a right lead and you didn’t cue it so she didn’t do it.
>One of my friends mentioned she went around the 4th jump after coming out of the tunnel because I called her name and I think she was correct. I’ve been trying to figure out how to handle soft turns out of tunnels and have currently been using her name.>
Yes – the name call locked her into handler focus and a “GO JUMP” might have been more successful there, plus not as much speed from you and more connection (to support her line at this stage of training).
And her name might end up being all you need to get those softer turns on tunnel exits! Yay!
Then you were great about getting her back on the line, nice cues, nice reward.
After the tugging and when you reset onto the next line – note how you were SUPER connected and smooth and NOT running too fast… she really dug in and found her jumps 🙂 Lovely!!!! She likes the turf, she could really use her feet to dig in.
The tunnel send at 1:04 (video 1) and 2:03 (video 2) was a really hard serp angle, where you would need to be closer to the line and doing a massive serp. Your handling path and connection too her to the other side of the tunnel, she was correct! Yay! Even your videographer said it was hard 🙂
At the end, she had a bit of trouble with that massive ending line across the ring –
She drove ahead at the beginning of the big line then curled in to take the tunnel when you were too far behind – no worries! That last jump was in a hard spot visually and she is new to driving 80 foot straight lines 🙂Overall, I think she was fabulous and this was a great debut!!!!!
Tracy
Good morning! This went well!!
It will probably end up being less of a position game and more of an arousal regulation game with her because she had to go from barking/spinning/hopping around (pre-pop-rocks, perhaps?) to calm/holding still til released. I thought she did GREAT here!!!
As you said, doesn’t really matter what position she chooses. It was interesting to see the down here, but that is how some dogs ‘ground’ themselves to self-regulate. It is also possible that the down is something heavily reinforced that she does indoors so you might not see it outdoors.
>got the sense that she could have handled a bit more delay.>
You can add in praise before the release/reward. And you can add in changing the arousal state:
– you can be MORE insane 🙂 for longer to get more arousal 🙂 Turn on music and dance around like a crazy person! But when you do this, don’t delay the release/reward, keep the duration short because arousal makes it harder
– you can add challenge by doing it front of a jump wing or something stimulating that also has a context cue of movement – but she needs to freeze 🙂>That is totally it about the leg weave then sit. She thinks the sit is the fun part (maybe because she knows it precedes a release and eventually a reward). >
Entirely possible! I mean, she has had a zillion rewards/fun times after the release from a sit!
>There was nothing in my hands for the hand cues. The hand cue does seem to help her. My leg position alone is too subtle. I’ll add in a wing for a jump bump in a bit.>
Perfect! And as the environment gets harder (arousal, or jump wing) you can make the leg position and hand cue really big and obvious to help her pick out the cue.
>My idea with the leash cue is that it gives me something to say at the end of the Run that isn’t “yay”. If she drives ahead to it that’s great but even if she keeps moving with me to it and expects to stick her head through the loop next that will do the trick for giving her something constructive to do ar the end of a run.>
Sounds good!
>I need to email USDAA even though they backed down on requiring the tire in Jumpers. (But why no option for a frameless tire l? Guess I should be happy they didn’t bring back the chute). >
I thought it was hilarious that they announced they were doing a Board because it was so successful in the past. I was on 2 of those boards – maybe you were too? They were wildly unsuccessful LOL!!
About the tire… if you are on the committee that hosts USDAA trials, just leave the tire off the list of obstacles you provide to the judge. That way there will be no tire in Jumpers LOL!!!
I have done 2 USDAA trials recently and I have found the judges to be GREAT about competitors saying “this is terrible, can we fix it” – regarding lines, contact entries, etc. I usually get elected to approach the judge about it (gee thanks, friends haha) but we have always managed to get a lovely course set 🙂
>He’s partway to the new ADCH requirements but I think it will take at least 2.5yrs and I feel like he probably has a higher Q rate than the average team and MN has more available trials than most of the country. Just seems like a huge barrier to entry that the first main championship title could easily take 2.5-3yrs after your dog is in masters.>
I think their most recent statement gave more time to do it? Or backed off a bit? I don’t remember because there are only 3 total USDAA trials over the year that are within 4 hours. So I run NFC with the youngsters locally and threw the adults into real runs (CB got a team Q on Thanksgiving weekend, it was hilarious!) but I can’t imagine trying for an ADCH. It is sad, because I really did love USDAA. Sigh.
Tracy
Good morning!
OMG that IS a busy weekend!!! But he held up really well, mentally (and physically too). Yay!!!
>But just in case it was helpful I did add a bit from my other camera at the beginning and end so you get the fullest picture. I loved that run for him. And I completely agree that he’s a little more distracted towards the front of the ring where the crowd is.>
The moments at the beginning were really interesting to see – I don’t think he was worried at all, but he was definitely like “wait, what’s that other dog doing?” Plus there was a crowd at the entry having a conversation. All of this is stuff he has not been exposed to all that much so if you can get people to do that in class, it would really help him: have him coming into the ring when the other dog is exiting. Have the next dog coming in while he is exiting. Have groups standing around talking 🙂
I really loved the run! Lots of great line finding, speed, driving ahead. LOVE IT!! The one jump he went around was him trying to process the crowd outside the ring AND find the jumps. He was successful at finding the curve of the course but not taking the jump. Good job just continuing – next time I know he will find the jump and that is where you can take off running and dragging the murder toy, as a reward.
The 2nd run – you know it is a good NFC run when the judge doesn’t feel the need to watch you like a hawk LOL! She ran your leash for you, strolled over to the score table, causally watched with a smile 🙂
As he was entering and moving to the first jump, he definitely had a bit of “wait there is another dog?” Haha!! But he was great about moving into the sit and holding it til released. SO HAPPY! I don’t think it was a mistake to just move to the line. He didn’t struggle! And you didn’t nag him. Next time you can ask for a high five and see how he does. He might be all business and want to just move to he line.
>then seemed to slow right away as I slowed at the tunnel to avoid getting too far ahead of him.>
I think it was more of the processing of running right in front of the crowd into a dark tunnel. He did great!
He ran a pretty massive section of the course – lovely! Instead of throwing the toy, you can also take off dragging it, that can keep it alive more easily.
>Run up the line was fine and then the plan was to try a push and reward after the first tunnel. He didn’t get it but we still rewarded and went back to try that again. I just wanted to try one “harder” skill while we were out there. Second time was success.>
This went well! I didn’t enough notice that it was not to plan the first time 🙂
>The ending line was fine, but again going toward the crowd he slowed a bit and I think maybe checked in with the score table a bit before going into the tunnel.>
The ending line was great, I love that you handled it FOR REAL and didn’t babysit him. Running towards the score table and judge looking at him was definitely a pressure challenge but he was lovely!
>At the end I threw the toy down but he didn’t make any more to grab it>
He actually did move to it, but you whipped it away rather than get it moving. You can do more running and dragging (running back towards the center of the ring) to keep it alive because the dropped toy can be dull for him especially in a spot where there is a lot of pressure.
>and meanwhile where was a TON of pressure there right at the exit with a fleet of course builders all lined up outside that entire corner just waiting for us to get out so they could go in. So I just wanted to get out of there as fast as possible then to get the pile of treats I’d left on a table (and he knew it) right out that exit gate.>
He did great! At the end, you can also just head for the leash & treats. Overall, I think it was a great day in the ring!!
>I don’t think we’ll be doing any trialing for awhile because if the bloodwork looks good at the vet at the end of month I’ll schedule him for a neuter in early January to get out one undescended testicle before it becomes a problem. It doesn’t appear “close” so his neuter might end up more like a spay in terms of complexity and recovery.>
Bummer!!! Can you feel the testicle? There is a way to help bring it down if you can feel it and it is still small. I have learned this magic from the whippet people because this happens all the time in whippets (and I was able to bring down the undescended testicle in my youngest dog – my vet was so proud of me hahahahaha!) It might be too late depending on his age, but it is worth a try if you don’t mind fiddling around with it. But if it is far enough up in his abdomen then yes, surgery.
>But let me know what you think of today, and advice for our next trials or anything else!>
In classes, add the other people/other dogs distraction. I bribe the humans by bringing food haha!
Then in classes, work through the NFC progression by fading the reward in the ring on simple sequences and adding weaves & contacts to that. This is not for every run, just sometimes. Most of your runs should still have rewards in the ring.
And at trials, for jump/tunnel classes like speeds takes – you can move to doing the in-and-out runs where the toy is not in the ring or in your pocket. In UKI, it can go with the leash, or a friend can keep it hidden til the end and then throw it so you can drag it. And then if he is happy with that, there are some real runs in Speedstakes coming soon!
For contacts and weaves, you can do some NFC for those so you can reward those in the ring (especially the ones he might think are hard). If he likes the a-frame a lot, for example, you probably don’t need to do NFC for that.
And based on how he feels, you can start moving to fading the toy in the ring and be gradually moving towards real runs in the classes too!
Great job 🙂
Tracy
Good morning!
>With the side to side pattern game, I feel I am getting a bit of running side to side in the pattern without looking up at my eyes (maybe at my hands) – is this OK or not?>
Ideally she looks up towards you rather than running back and forth. She is probably sorting out the pattern and you might be tossing the next treat too soon. So, wait longer until you see her look fully up and towards you for a second or two, then toss the next treat 🙂
>Our turn and burn is less successful than I’d like. We did some yesterday with the laundry basket and then I remembered you suggested a cone so I thought it might be easier. Turning to her left seems to work better. I notice I am not looking at her – is that the magic cure? She seems to be looking at my hands/the toy.>I think it went pretty well! Yes, you can look at her more especially on the right turns, but I don’t think adding more connection if the magic cure 🙂
What I was seeing was that the left turns went super! The right turns were harder and she kept offering to go left (which is the side the toy was on). But when you were asking for left turns, she did not try to go to the toy side at all. So… she is a lefty! At least for this game LOL!
For the next session, start her turning to her left, and you can use a toy (keeping it scrunched up in your hand). For the right turns, use treats and you can help her get more comfy turning to her right by dropping treats at different points around the cone/barrel as she moves around it. Then you can work up to doing the FC and rewarding from your hand.
Her left turns will probably progress more quickly in this game than her right turns, for now. But you will see that the right turns catch up really quickly and then she will be able to do it smoothly in both directions.
Great job!!
Tracy
Good morning! Hope you had fun at the trial!
Lap turns are going well! Arm and connection worked great. Remind your leg to step back only when your arm starts to move – you were early on several of the reps so he questioned if he should come to your hand or follow the motion sideways to the prop. You can see it on the first couple of reps, because after that he had figured it out 🙂 Sometimes your leg did not move at all, so definitely remind it to get involved LOL!
To get more fluid movement out of the lap turn and to the prop (future jump), as soon as you get the turn – move forward at a walk, releasing the arm and stepping forward. You were freezing with the arm out over his head and over the prop so he had a couple of questions.
The easiest way to get you moving more is to move the prop further from you by either moving yourself further back, or moving the prop towards the camera. That way you can’t get him to touch it by just being stationary, you will need to move forward 3 or 4 steps by relaxing the arm after you get the turn and stepping forward with the leg.
That will also help the tandem turns: get the turn and move forward (with the prop further away).
>tandem turn felt awkward>
I think what was happening was that you were trying to turn him away and indicate the prop at the same time (he was like “which is it, human!” LOL!)
So you can start him further from you (stay or cookie toss, but not heeling with you) so you are moving past the prop with your tandem turn hands visible for him to lock onto.
Then when you are a couple of steps past the prop, turn him away on the flat, then move forward the new direction for him to drive to the prop.
And if the prop is there – don’t use your marker until after he hits it. You were using it as he turned away, which gets him ignoring the prop (the hits were incidental). But I think if the prop is further from where you were turning him, it will be easy to get him to move to it after the turn away.
Parallel path on the jump set up looked really good!! He did a great job finding it! Yay! So now we quickly change things:
– no more clicker 🙂 It jump-started the behavior, and now we don’t need it. It gets him looking at you which we don’t want. This is a universal issue with clicker training because the click doesn’t indicate where the reward is, and most of the time either the reward is from our hands or the dogs track our throw – both of which gets more looking at us. Instead, use your thrown cookie marker (I think it is search, as long as it is for one cookie only :))
– change the timing of the marker to make it sooner. Mark and throw the instant you see him look and take the first step to the jump, so the reward has arrived out in front of him before he gets to the uprights. We are basically shaping him to look at his lines, more than simply going through the uprights. Don’t wait to mark and throw when he gets to the uprights, because he will look at you (there is nothing else to look at, at that point :)) and then marking and throwing when he looks at you will get more looking at you :). To get the marker in earlier, you can throw the treats as far as possible so you have more time & space between the cookie eating and moving to the jump.
Tunnel threadling went great! You were showing the threadle arm before you let him start moving, which was spot on!
Be consistent with that (by the end of the session, you were letting go and doing the cues all at the same time, but you will get more learning on the hand and verbal if you show it to him before any movement happens.) And when you are holding him and showing the hand cue, you can also say the here verbal – then say it again when you release him.
On each side, you got him to the end of the tunnel where he could then threadle to the other side of it. Super! You can now try to show him the discrimination:
– when he is closer to the end of the tunnel so he can see a relatively easy path to the tunnel entry in front of him, you can hold his collar, say tunnel 5 or 6 times, then let him go so he can go into the regular tunnel entry– from almost the same spot (you can move him forward a little so it is easier to threadle and harder to get the normal tunnel entry – you can hold his collar, show the threadle arm/say ‘here’, then let him go to find the threadle entry.
And of course you can make it easier if this is really hard for him by changing his position, but I think that he is ready for this challenge!
>For contact training, with Dellin I used a box for the a frame and mat for the RDW. I think I will do the same with Judge since I am happy with how they both worked. I will try to introduce him to the box in the next few days.>
Sounds good! Because of his size and structure, you will likely have to tweak the mat method to suit his movement better. It is a method developed for Border Collies 🙂 so adjustments for a big guy who is structurally very different will make sense. I think it is Kirsten O’Neill from Canada has a great method that she has used successfully with her big Mals!
Great job here! Stay warm!
Tracy
Good morning! It was great seeing you and Ringo is SO FUN!!! Love him!!!!
Were these done in a dog run at an RV campground? Super nice!!!!!!!
Decel – Yes, the turning helped and he did well here! To give him time to process the cue and shift his weight into his rear, you can decelerate sooner. You were starting the decel when he was about a stride for you, so he had to jam on the brakes. To give him more time, you can start your decel no later than when he is halfway to you. This will carry over into his course work on jumps (starting the decel no later than exit of the previous obstacle, which is going to feel early but will work great!!0
Send back to prop: He is wanting to move to it but following your motion, so 3 small tweaks for you:
– add in a bit of ready dance to it. We don’t need to pump up the arousal, but you can use a quiet ‘ready’ moment to make a really clear transition to the send. That way he can see your arm, leg, and eyes shift from his cute face to the send
– after the send, move forward slowly and leaving your send arm pointing back to the prop. This includes when you mark and reward – you were moving fast when rewarding and that was EXCITING to him 🙂 so he wanted to follow that motion. So being slow the whole time can really help!
– you can mix in throwing the rewards back to the prop rather than always reward from your hand. That can help balance the value of the prop versus you (YOU are high value right now :))
You had some verbal excitement paired with calm body language as part of the reward for turn and burn and it went GREAT!!! He was able to commit really well. There was only one blooper moment where he did not take the barrel, and it was when you were moving before he got to the barrel. The other reps had you doing the FC just as he arrived at the barrel and he did great.
At the beginning you were lining in him up on your left, saying the verbal, then letting him wrap. Nice! That allowed you to position him where you wanted him and then let him hear the verbal before you let him move (which helps for learning the verbal).
On the other side then when you went back to the left side, you were not doing that as consistently – it was more of a send s the verbal was happening after the movement. Ideally, you line him up each time to get the verbal attached and also so you can move him a little further away – that will also get him focused on the barrel so you can start leaving sooner. A cookie lure is perfectly fine for getting him lined up where you want him each time 🙂
He tried so hard to get on the plank! Good boy! Even though it is not a perfect agility plank, it was still a good challenge to get on something narrow and balance. He could hop up and balance, but he couldn’t really turn around yet (probably not enough room). That is fine – hopping up and balancing is perfect! He was starting to get the turn around concept by the end so let him sleep on it, and I bet he will get better and better at it.
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
Great news about the sit! I am glad it is going well.
>I did some judging yesterday and she got to play the sit stay game for a toy during lunch (so people eating about 20’ away) and in the ring while breaking down at the end of the day (so people moving equipment around). >
That is fantastic! What a great opportunity and it sounds like she had fun 🙂 I didn’t know you were a judge – UKI? Hope to see you in the ring!
>Distractions don’t seem to be much of an issue for her once she goes into “work” mode. Thank you to her working border collie lines!>
Right!! The BC brings a particular style of work focus to the mix. And I have found that whippets don’t care about people all that much. They don’t dislike them, they just prefer to do things with their human and ignore the people. Other things might be distractions (motion, perhaps) but I have personally found this mix to be relatively easy to train in terms of distractions 🙂
Looking at the prop game to get the RCs going:
>I found myself trying to “help” send her forward since she was stopping when I started to cross a few times, which I don’t think is the goal of this exercise.>
It is not necessarily the goal but it got you closer to the goal. I think in some ways he might have been waiting for a permission to go forward in the first minute or so, so you gave it to her and then she moved forward.
At about 1:23 she started to drive forward really well! Then you added a rear cross and she was like “wait, what?” LOL! And looked at you a bit.
No worries – she was really trying to solve the puzzle and you were good about rewarding all the effort she was making!
So for the next session: in order to get the RC we need to get you to be fully visible on her other side before she arrives at the prop, so she can turn the correct direction. When you did that, she got it! On the other reps, you were still visible on the original side as she was arriving at the prop so she sorted her turn to the original side.
You were very very close to being fully on the other side, so here is an idea to get it in the next session:
Warm up the game with the back and forth parallel path game like you did here. You were throwing the cookie nice and far away, so keep doing that.
The one thing you can add is to go all the way to the cookie with her, let her eat it… then move forward right with her.
That should help in two ways:
Your forward movement should be the cue to move forward to the prop (when you are a little further ahead and not moving, the decelerated position might cause her to want to come to you and not to the prop
And by getting her driving forward more and you moving sooner, you can get to the other side sooner too – you’ll be on the new side before she arrives at the prop. If she turns the correct direction but doesn’t hit the prop, reward anyway of course 🙂
Let me know how it goes, especially after she sleeps on it for a day or two! I mean, it is possible that our plans are irrelevant because she will now he game and the next 10 steps the next time you try it LOL!!
Nice work here 🙂
Tracy
