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Hi!
Tugging on your leg went well! You can add in tugging on your leg, then letting him have it as you back up and encourage him to bring the toy to you. You can do it in an enclosed space, so he can’t run off with the toy 🙂Strike a pose is off to a great start! He was happy to target the hand then go ot the cookie reward. He is ready for hte next step where he starts in a stay or you can use a cookie throw start, then he drives back to the target hand. Then you can see if can get the reward down to the ground, in the form of an empty food bowl that you drop the treats into.
Nice work!!
TracyHi!
>So far I am thinking I will stick with AKC. I never did premier with Frisco and I am half sorry I didn’t.>
Sounds good! Premier course design has improved, so you might consider it. But AKC regular & premier gives us a good basis to pick & choose verbals!
>The fact that we got to PACH 4 and almost 5 was a pleasant surprise. Brighton and I have had such ups and down with his being sick then rehab for his back I have only recently thought about premier again. Brain camp exercises have helped but he is still working through his ring stress. I am thinking some of it might have been pain related now.>
It definitely might have been pain-related… dogs will keep working through pain but we often do see stress behavior showing up.
>Dublin is a very different dog from my other dogs so far but I have not decided my goals for him. MACH or PACH would be nice and if he likes it I might even think of Grand with him.>
I think choosing goals for now is best for what type of contact behavior you want to train, getting him engaged in different places, etc. The titles are fun to think about but they will actually be easy to attain when all the pieces of the training goals come together 🙂
> Would it be hard to change my dig dig turn towards me verbal later? I started Dig dig with Brighton so it’s been almost 7 years of memory. Maybe I try to add directional wraps and keep my backside “around” for now? Then we expand as we go?>
Yes – you can expand and change as you go. For AKC regular and Premier, I think the best choices are wrap-towards-me, wrap-away-from me, and around for backside slice – and one for backside wrap, because you will see that in AKC regular (versus the backside slice). But also important for AKC are the soft turn directions (more coming on that soon!) and the tunnel threadle verbal.
Then, depending on how course design evolves in the next couple of years, you can add anything needed 🙂
Today I got the baby tunnel out. We have done a little with it and the bowls. He would go back and forth between the two bowls like a movement puzzle. This was 1st time with the treat and train.
He was SO CUTE standing in the tunnel at the beginning! And he was happy to go through it to the MM. Because this went so well, you can move past the offering stage
> Ok I did read the lesson and do realize I went too long. He just seemed to be having fun and I goofed.>
You can set a timer to maybe 2 minutes – then assess if you liked the session. If you liked it – you can take a break then come back and do more, but adding more challenges. Or, you can move to someting else so it doesn’t get too reptitive or he goes on autopilot. You added the tunnel verbal about 4 minutes into the session, which is good because it helped stopped his back and forth into the tunel without being cued. And he was also happy to turn away from you to get into it. Super! You can also remove the MM and use a toy as the reward.
.We also worked strike a pose with the toy in hand then on ground. I hope I did this right. It isn’t the best video since it zoomed in and cut my head off 😂>
It was great! We didn’t need to see your face to know the mechanics were really good 🙂 I could tell by your shoulder position.
I am also really excited that he was able to go from the cookie toss to the tug reward, even wihtout needing to make the tug crazy exciting.Great job making the hand target REALLY obvious on the 2nd rep with the toy on the ground – that toy is exciting so pumping up the excitement of the target/serp hand certainly drew him to the serp hand. Yay!
Letting him see you drop the toy (like at 9:57) might have focused him on it too much, so you can put it down then send him away to the start cookie so toy movement is not catching his attention as he turns back to you.
Great job here!! The camera at the end was hilarious: it kepy doing close ups on your target hand LOL!!!!
Tracy
Hi!
His stays are looking lovely!! And he held them really well, even with the ready ready excitement:) I think the only 2 Bloopers were when he thought the release was happening but it didn’t. Oops! No worries.So keep building it up – you can mix in more duration in the form of moving away further, as well as a little quiet praise because you release or throw a reward back.
And since he is beginning to understand the value of jumps and tunnels, you can add in stays in front of them (releasing forward or throwing a reward back).Great job here!
TracyGood morning! He did great with these, so we can proceed to the next steps on them:
For the tunnel game, we can add 2 things:
– more verbal independence by holding him when he is next to you, saying the tunnel verbal while he is next to you, then letting go after he has heard it a few times. That should get him going to it without needing physical cues as much (which will lead to more distance when you have more room).
– you can hold him so he is between you and the tunnel, meaning he has to turn away to get into the tunnel. Start pretty near the entry at first so it is easy 🙂 then you can get further and further away if he understands it. That is the foundation for the tunnel threadle cue.
For the lap turn, where you are facing him and turning him away: you can go to the advanced level, where the prop is present. The lap turn draws him past it, then turns him away to move to it.
For the tandem turns: you can add in facing away from him as if moving on the parallel line, then turning him away so you both turn to the new direction. You were facing him on these so having you face forward will possibly make it a little more challenging.
If he finds it easy 😀 you can move to the advanced level with the prop too.Great job!
TracyGood morning!
>The first thing I think is that I wasn’t very successful with this set of exercises.>
I disagree! This is all about sorting out the needs of each dog, and we got a ton of good info (along with a lot of beautiful turns).
> “and I was looking for a strategy that covers him not giving me 100% of his brain.>
Environment and arousal is where the brain loses bandwidth, so you can crank that up in a couple of ways:
– running him through the tunnel, back and forth 5 or 6 times in a row
– turning on barking dog noises or loud music or agility trial sounds – it is amazing how distracted dogs can get him home base when there is a recording of someone yelling TUNNEL TUNNEL TUNNEL
– play with his favorite toy then set it off to the side (depending on what you want to train in the moment.
>When he is aroused, what I have right now is a dog who will take the line and stay on it regardless of additional handling. Or he will need handling so early that it can pull him off the line if he happens to be clued in.>
Processing delays! Arousal draws bandwidth, so his brain is slower to register info and that makes responding to it even slower… so he might process a turn cue after he has exited the off course tunnel, and there is exactly zero wiggle room to be even a little late. Does that sound like what he is doing?
>In this case, the toy was serving both as a distraction and reinforcement. >
I think for Casper, he is more of an all-or-nothing learner, meaning that distraction and reinforcement actually keeps the distraction level high because the reinforcement is always possibly available (in his view, not in your intent).
I think more of a yes-no approach will work better: the reward from turn cues is always back towards you (yes) and it is never ever (no) available on the straight line ahead (nope!) Having it serve as both reward and distraction keeps a ‘maybe’ in play and I think that is why you aren’t seeing improvement as fast as you’d like.
>I often train with a toy lying around and release him to it as a reward. I take it you are not a fan of that approach.>
It is entirely dependent on the individual dog, for some dogs it is super clarifying! For others, it is too grey and not black and white enough. Casper seems to need more black and white.
>Even toys on his line are not available unless I release him to get them.>
Yes, but he still goes towards them a lot and doesn’t truly ignore them. So while he might not always grab the reward, the possibility exists so he is focusing some energy on that.
>my takeaway is that I am late in getting the information to Casper.>
Sometimes, but the there were also really good reps! And personally, I would like all of us to have the wiggle room of being able to be a little late and still get a good response, so I think a black and white approach to reinforcement will help him!
>The backside with brake arm – Now your dogs…they both do lovely round circles while Casper’s are more oval-shaped.>
I think there were a couple of factors in play – my brake arm was maybe a stride earlier and a little more “in yer face” to the big dog 🙂
Also, mine had seen it before so knew what to do while Casper was seeing it for the first time. Letting him see it more and very strongly will let him slow down into collection, especially on mats, while you move away to give him room on the landing spot. Starting it at a lower jump height will let him sort out the mechanics before raising the bars again.
Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Good morning!
>It felt good in the moment and his turns looked good>
Yes! Super lovely, especially on the reps from 1:17 to the end. Even the one you noted as late was still a really nice turn!
> but I feel like I’m still a bit late for what he really needs from me to actually shorten his stride on approach and set himself up for a nice tight turn without last minute adjustments that seem more likely to bring a barn down at full height.>
Onwards to the sequences! These warm up drills are more about mechanics and not about timing. The sequences will gather feedback on timing.
In general, the info will need to start no later than exit of a tunnel if that is the obstacle before the wrap (or while he is in the air (if that is the previous obstacle). The question is: what info, exactly? For him, I’m guessing rather verbal and decel then brake arm, all before he reaches the halfway point – but the rotation can be later. Hitting the brakes too hard might pull him off the jump, but that is something to play with on the sequences!
And we can overlay the different turns to look at what is fastest – tightest is not always fastest!Keep me posted! Great job here!
TracyGood morning!
>My ancient original Manners Minder and my slightly less ancient Treat N Train both have broken remotes. So, while I wait for Amazon to deliver a programmable key fob replacement we used a toy and then thrown treats. We’ll circle back when the remotes arrive.>
No rush on adding the MM or TnT (I always call it the wrong thing lol) – this tunnel game or even strike a pose are good ways to introduce it but it is not necessary 🙂
Strike a pose at the beginning was high energy and super fun! You can see if you can use a start cookie to change his angle of approach:
Coming from the toy is a challenging angle (he did great), and you can use a cookie to get him to approach from a 90 degree angle (facing you) and also from the side closer to the target hand. That side might actually be the hardest, because it would be easy to bypass the serp hand and head directly to the reward 🙂The tunnel session went well too, he definitely seems to think tunnels are fun 🙂
It was interesting that he didn’t want the toy on that first rep: too stationary? Expectation of food? I’m curious to know what he would do if you threw it as the reward.
The threadle side entries were also really good, you can work further and further back along the length of the tunnel to add more challenge.
He was doing a bit of “send me in, coach!” by staying out on the line until you cued the tunnel again 🙂
You can add in a lineup before each tunnel rep, partially to keep him working tight to you when asked to start the next rep, and partially so you can be super clean with the mechanics: choosing exactly where you want him to start, and holding him so he can hear the verbal before moving. Those will speed the learning and also come in really handy when the tunnel games get more challenging.Great job!!
Tracy
Good morning!
>I am still having difficulty doing any posting from my phone. I get an error and it won’t load the page regardless of what browser I use. I am able to post from my computer.>
Sorry to hear it is being a pain! Is it an iPhone? There was a recent update that is causing trouble with YouTube, even if you didn’t directly update the phone (something that Apple did) It takes a few days to settle back to normal (plus I cleared the history etc on my Mac and the miscommunication with YouTube went away).
Let me know if it is not an iPhone, and send a screenshot of it so I can pass it along to tech – the site all works well on my Android phone and PC, probably because they are Google-powered and Google owns YouTube 😆
The parallel path went great – she was locked onto the jump and appeared to be having a grand time 🙂 Next step: you are moving parallel to her path the whole time. This includes getting more and more laterally away from her line as well as starting with her so she drives ahead. Standing still at the wing should cue a collection, so keeping you in motion will support the extension.
Strike a pose also went great! She was driving into the serp hand beautifully and your reward placement was spot on!
You can move to the next steps, such as using a toy as the reward, and getting the reward to the ground (like an empty food bowl that you can drop a treat into)You can also use a stay, which will also allow you to start at different angles to challenge her approach to the jump.
Great job!
Tracy
Good morning!
Disconnected at :36 and 33:21 to throw so he did not know where to be when he exited the tunnel on the first rep. Wait to throw until you see him look at the jump: that will make sure he is committing to it and it will also make sure you are connected.
When you were connected at 2:07, for example: perfect!
Moving faster also seemed to be no problem – when you were moving straight, he was reading the line consistently well. When you were stepping to the side as he was on the way to the tunnel or when he exited (to get more lateral distance probably) he actually read that and changed his line! So you can set your line before sending him to the start wing so you can run on a straight line and not show any pulling away.
Good job on the rear crosses! Having to do them in a smaller space means the cues have to be clear and timely 🙂 You were able to get timely cues going – the first one on each side was late but then you put more pressure on the RC line and did it sooner, so he found the RCs in both directions, even jumping into the wall. YAY!!! I grabbed screenshots of the ones that were late versus the ones that were timely – note how if he is a stride from the takeoff spot there and you are still facing pretty straight he goes to the original direction, as opposed to the successful reps where you were putting more pressure on the line before he got to a stride before takeoff so he read the RCs. And your toy throws helped too!
Because RCs are hard and relatively new to him, he is still checking in a little by looking at you but that will go away when he has more experience and you have more room to run 🙂
Here is the link to the screenshots:
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1VXxGSTcguVGRlIYZDvFjCUKuGQ4sy3J4wja6rFSmkvA/edit?usp=sharing>There is no agility place closer than 90 minutes for me to rent. And that one is dirt. He has been on the turf at United Dog once.>
When the weather is more reliable, maybe you have agility folks you can meet to share a rental or lesson with? I wish you lived closer, I would totally share rentals! Does he still get to share time with Benni at lessons with Jess? He is at the age where we do want to take his skills on the road but the weather has NOT been helping!
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
>Wraps and blind crosses went fairly well. >
Yes! Those looked really strong and well-connected! Super!
>Challenge for us was sending out to the top of the diamond and mini challenges with tunnel entrances.>
For some of her wing commitment questions, that was partially disconnection (looking ahead instead of at her) and partially the big distance between the obstacles – you might have feeling the pressure to take off to the next line, which was pulling her off.
>For the tunnel bloopers I think it’s because I’m racing to the tunnel entrance and then stopping rather than connecting and letting her commit to it before I peel off. >
Yes – and the tunnel entry is actually a little offset from the line so you might need to actually push her back to it. Or you can curve it a little more so it is a straight line to the entry.
I grabbed a couple of screenshots so you can see those moments:
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1K0f-Ioys-bN6eF4iQ_XROOadveopWzY96v0DCMI1VlA/edit?usp=sharing
>Seems like maybe I need to slow down a bit on all of these so that she is committing rather than me trying to take her places – does that make sense?>
Yes, makes total sense! You also moved the distances in closer which will really help too, because you won’t have to cover as much ground as while also maintaining all the connection a baby dog needs.
You can play with running without arms showing the line 🙂 Either pump your arms like a runner or keep one hand pointed to her nose the whole time. That will help with connection.
Another thing to play with it fewer, quieter verbals. When she has a question, the verbals get louder and more urgent – I read them as you giving the cues urgently. She might read them as getting yelled at, which is why she was stopping a bit when she had a question. It might have been too similar to the “momma is mad” voice LOL 😂 so try being really quiet and see how it goes!
>We started with food, which works OK. She’s not nearly as engaged as with the ball. >
The ball is clearly the top of the reward hierarchy 🙂
>I tried the two ball approach, limited success, she seemed happy to leave the one and play with the one I had, but unless I was able to pick it up (without her grabbing it first) it became a distraction on the field. >
That will be something we can work through – she did run past some no the ground on the video!
It is possible we need to apply the 2 (or 3) ball approach with a short session of an easier game. That way you can focus more on using the ball rewards with simple behavior that she will have no questions about. The smiley face game might be perfect for that!
>I also used food tosses to get it, but she caught on to that pretty quickly. Once it became a game of keep away we called it quits. >
Was that towards the end of the diamond video? That might have had more to do with the challenges in the diamond sequences and some frustration from that – she didn’t want to bring it back. That is why I suggest an easier game for now to incorporate the balls.
You can also just play games with the balls in the house where she starts to see how to earn the next ball, how to leave the first ball (pr bring it back) and how to eat food in between. That can give you both a way to sort out mechanics on the balls without also trying to get handling correct.
Nice work here! Let me know how it goes today!
Tracy
Hi!
The setup with the grid looked really good here with 2 bumps then the jump!
> Seems like it went well, including when I slowed down the video. Looks like low head and arched back. >
I agree! And good for you for slowing down the video to watch!
He totally cheated on the stay on the first rep but the jump form was really nice! He caught himself beginning to cheat later in the session (:50) but stopped himself – good boy!
For now, we are going to keep you out next to the toy and moving forward – there was one rep where you sent to the toy while you stayed by the jump, but that is a decel position so we don’t want him to extend past it. All of the rest had you out with the moving target toy, and those looked good!
It is possible that the distances were a few inches too wide, but that mght also be because you are indoors and mats have a different grip than grass. If you have decent weather, you can take this outside and see how he does at these distances.
Great job!
Tracy
Hi! These are going really well! Only 1 sugestion for the mechanics that might make it feel even smoother:
Lean forward more and get your hand more to her nose level, and keep it there until she is just a couple of inches from it. Then you can step back and move it back to cue the turn.
That will build in a bit more decel for you both, plus it will keep you from being too early with the arm or step back. When you were a shade early with the foot and yur hand was high, she thought it was a throw back (like at :53 and 1:19)
The reps at 1:57 amd 2:22 were great examples of your hand being lower and the timing of the cue started just before she got to the hand – nice timing, nice turn!!!
You can also send her to the other wing from further away will mean you don’t have to back up as much 🙂 That will also make it easier to get your hand low and feet together to prep for the turn away.
I think she is ready to see the tandem turns!
Great job here!
Tracy
Hi!
He did really well with the out versus going straight! No problem discriminating between the two cues, on both sides and with some distance added too – well done to you for making them very different. Adding the blind went well! It worked best when you were moving more, like at the end of the video. When you were walking then accelerated into the blind, he was surprised and the acceleration sent him a bit wide. But when you were running more, he was able to set up a nice tight turn.Mission Transition:
There was an emphasis on the Go cues here especially in the first part, which is great because he can keep learning about the joys of leaving you far behind 😂🤣
The decel and wrap verbal can start sooner: you were generally starting the decel when he was more than halfway to the jump, which is a little late but I can see why you did that: at :47, your timing was really good, he was maybe a stride past the start wing – but he didn’t commit. Hmmm! You adjusted on the others to be later to get commitment but we want you to also have earlier timing, so you can adjust the reward placement for the wraps. To help him commit when you decel without you having to let him get pretty close to the jump, you can throw the reward to the landing side of the wrap wing, nice and close to it, so he gets paid for committing in collection.He is turning really well, so it is not about the actual collection – it is more about teaching him to drive into it with you you having to get as close to the jump or wait as long to cue it.
The lap turns looked good! He definitely liked it better when you added the wing before hte lap turn 🙂 He read them really well – just be sure to keep your leg relatively still until he is almost at your hand. Stepping back too early will result in him thinking it is a throw back. That is what happened at :53 and 1:41 – your leg was really early which makes the hand a little early too, which turns your shoulders to the throw back side of the wing so that is where he went. You told him he was incorrect but he was actually correct 🙂 It was pretty funny at :55 where he kept going LOL!
For the lap turns, you can add more space between the wings to get more speed. And you can also add in the tandem turns!
The ladder grid is going well – the only real question he had was on the step in for jump 1: he pushed from the rear on rep 1, but on reps 2 and 3 he really pulled upwards and kind of lifted himself over the bar. It might just have been because he was a shade too close to the bar on those reps, so you can have his front feet about a hands-width away from the bar to see if that gives him enough room. The last rep looked better on the step in, but the first rep was definitely the best one.
He was a little pouncey over jump 5, but that was probably in anticipation of getting the reward 🙂 You can lead out further and move faster, both to challenge him and to get him driving out more over the last jump.
Nice work here!!
Tracy
Good morning!
>We’re gonna put the serps on hold to give me time for latent learning.>
Sleep on it! And it might make more sense in a sequence and not in isolation.
Zigzags –
>I was a little caught off guard with her speed on the slice jumps and very happy with the session.>
Yes, she was all in and flying, so you needed a moment to lock in 🙂
You can also start at the 3rd wing to get things rolling on 2 bars like yo did at 2:50 (instead of at the end of the 3rd bar). And you can use your feet too – you might be able to get her turning more if you are also stepping to each line rather than just using upper body. You did a bit of stepping on the last rep (3:08) and that helped!
The turn aways are also going well – one thing to be sure of is that you step straight back with your leg before turning her to the wing, rather than stepping towards the wing.
Stepping towards the wing made it harder for her to know where the turn line was like at 3:34. But when you stepped straight back like at 4:03 and on the last rep, her turn was quick and tight!
When you are using both wings, you can send more so you don’t end up running backwards 🙂 I think yout body was rejecting the idea of running backwards 😂 So you can send to the other wing from as close to the turn wing as possible, so you don’t have to back up much at all.
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
Sick for 4 weeks – oh no!!! I hope you are on the road to feeling better! And hopefully the snow is melting and better weather is ahead.
This session looked lovely 🙂 He is responding brilliantly to the ‘pass’ threadle cues, turning pretty immediately on the wing and looking towards the next direction (and not at the straight line to the tunnel).
When he was on your right, there were a couple of questions: at 1:21 and 2:10 for example, he responded perfectly to the beginning of the cue but then you were blocking the line to to the correct end of the tunnel (and were moving a bit straight towards the center of the tunnel, so he had questions about how to find the correct tunnel entry.
To smooth that out, you can be further away laterally from the before the tunnel, and be turned & moving to the end of the tunnel you want so you don’t block the line to it.
You can see the good line of motion you used at 2:59, 3:25, 3:52 by turning and moving towards the correct end of the tunnel. That was spot on in terms of making sure he could see the line you wanted – he had no questions 🙂
Two smaller details that will get more important as these sequences get expanded for more distance and speed: your connection was really great! When you really get running, I don’t think you will need an arm up to support the line (like from the tunnel t the wing). I bet you can keep your arm down (pointed more to his nose) and just run with connection & verbals. That will keep you moving faster and still showing clear connection.
He was great about ignoring the toy in your hand, but you can also put the toy in your pocket so you don’t have to switch it to the other hand during the threadle. This suggestion is only because it will make your hands quicker, not because he was distracted or anything.
Great job here!!
Tracy
