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Good morning!
This game is good to work from the handler perspective because it is all about connection & sends (and you mentioned recently that sends were a pain!).
On the one-step sends, you had really good connection and no arm flings so he of course did it brilliantly.
>When he made an error on the wrap I felt it was him and tried again but realized I lured him through the gap unintentionally with my toy so I hid it after and he was still amazing.>
Was the at 2:12? Ummm…… Not dog error LOL! You never finished the FC – you stood still halfway through the cross and dangled a toy without a marker… so he was not necessarily wrong to keep going. The cue was vague and no marker should mean no toy. And not being fully rotated could be the cue for the middle wing. It was a grey area for him so he had to guess.
The verbal was the wrap verbal but that won’t necessarily override physical cues at this stage.
On the next reps at 2:36 and 3:06 and 3:35, you finished the FC and he did the wrap really well.
>I went silent on one because I didn’t know what to say lol!>
Which was the part where you didn’t know what to say? I think you got quiet on the soft turns that were wing-to-wing. You can use your left/right verbals for those.
Nice work here! You can keep adding distance and that will end up adding more and more speed 🙂
Tracy
Good morning!
>We did the part three and I had my first class fail… forgot to start the video. >
Oh no! I have done that too – eek! But it sounds like the session went great. You can move forward to the next steps.
And I love the photo – she is looking so grown up!
Tracy
Good morning!
The threadle wrap foundations are going really well! 2 small details:
You can be moving forward as she gets the start cookie, then decelerate as she is on her way to you – that way she reads it as a cue to come to your side and won’t shoot past you. Threadle wraps have decel in them on course, so the decel is good for human training too LOL
>My mechanics got a little wonky when she was on my left, so I ended up just standing still for the U turn. I ended before I got crazy & wanting a perfect turn! >
I thin the decel will help! And also, you can think of your hand as leading her through the turn away, so the hand movements can be slower and right on her nose. When you did that, she was very successful. When you were too quick or your hand moved forward too much (like at 1:21), she was not quite as clear about what to do.
>I probably could have ditched to LB and tried using 2 hands as you suggested above, but I forgot >
No worries! You can definitely try it with empty hands next time. She is ready for that. And we build on this game soon 🙂
>chose the lotus ball tug to get her interest in some food play lol & so we weren’t doing too many reps of the threadle without some play. Any suggestions on my toy play? >
I think the lotus ball tug read more as “time to eat!” than as a tug toy, which might be why she was grabbing for the lotus ball part of it. Separately from training anything specific, you can teach her that tugging on the LB toy is what gets you to open the LB on it and give her the cookies 🙂
And you can mix in tugging with a crazier toy – anything furry or fuzzy that she loves. After just one rep with food, start throwing and dragging the toy so she can really chase it. You might need to go into a different room or hallway to move her away from food smells – it is hard to tug sometimes when there are a lot of food smells! And doing this after one rep with food will help her not get stuck in food mode.
Great job here 🙂 Keep me posted on the tugging 🙂
Tracy
Wow, she was a spitfire here! Barking, tugging, flying and also finding that wing brilliantly even with you moving the other way with the toy (and the Manners Minder sitting right there!) And great job with your verbals!
On the 2nd rep, you were blocking her line to the wing so she was not quite sure where to go but the wing was visible on all the other reps so she was perfect. You can definitely add the rocking horse game and lots of running – I bet she will love it.
Also, I think she ight also like tugging as part of the pattern game! The video above began with the toy in her mouth so you can incorporate more toy play: tug, a couple of pattern reps, back to tug, a couple of pattern reps, and so on.
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
What a good girl at the trial! The trial noises were particularly challenging and loud, and she was able to work through it. I love how she assessed the environment then returned her engagement to you – perfect! There were a lot of dogs barking a bit frantically, which probably added challenge.
What type of treats were they? She was definitely interested in them but you can also go up in value in harder environments. That way they are very enticing plus many times that are easier to track visualy and by for (like a piece of cheddar cheese or a crunchy cheese ball :))
Great job here!
Tracy
OMG I can relate to this – my whippet Ramen does that but so far does not put holes in things. Yesterday I was standing on steps and he jumped up from the ground and grabbed the shoulder of my shirt. That’s what we get for encouraging athleticism LOL!
T
Good morning!
This was a lovely session! He is very food-driven but was able to move away from the food and have complete engagement with you. And when you delayed a bit and asked for the sit… he got more engaged and excited to do behaviors. SUPER!
You were already asking for sits, hand touches, spins. And you were consistently clear with the ‘party’ marker. So you can start to use a couple of behaviors in a row (you did a down to stand at the end). And you can be asking for behavior while you walk away from the cookies too.
At this stage, I also like to add the leash: the pup is on leash, I put the pile of treats down, walk away, take off the leash… and he is stays with me and is engaged: party! The begins to simulate what he will need to do at the beginning of a run in agility and the higher levels of obedience, so it is good. To start showing it to him now!
Great job :)
Tracy
Good morning!
>For the resilience game would it be ok to use my training space or should I work somewhere else? >
You can mix it up all – as many different places as possible! It can be something as simple as right outside a door, or a hallway – changing the environment from being what he is used to into something different can be subtle so he still gets the experience of the differences.
He definitely was a bit startled by the first cookies marker: everything was so quiet, he was concentrating so hard… but then he was fine and did great in the session. You can start adding in asking for a trick or behavior or two before using your cookies maker to run back and get the treats 🙂
The threadle wrap foundation went really well! He seemed to have no questions about turning away from you in either direction. Yay! Adding the movement also went well – my only suggestion for hen you are moving is to let him get nice and close to your leg & hand, then cue the turn away. When he was further away and you were moving, he didn’t quite read the cue to turn away. But he was perfect when he was close to you!
We build on this game soon. Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
These are great! I think you have covered all scenarios except maybe remote reinforcement?
A question about Tails versus Catch & Heads – for Tails, it sounds like he should move to get the reward which could be thrown (or placed for Tails). For Catch & Heads – is he also allowed to move? That reward might end up behind him. So it might be a little redundant – which is not a problem because he will of course read context as part of it. And I love that you have Heads & Tails LOL!T
Hi!
Hi!
Nice start here too with the pattern games. And I love the tricks! That got him pumped up to a great level of engagement.And that transferred really well to the barrel: the barrel reps were great! You had distance, verbals, countermotion, blind crosses, etc and he nailed it!
>This is the first time I’ve ever actually felt some real flow with some handling. I could not get over how good it felt (it felt a lot more balletic than it looks on video haha).>
I thought it looked great! I bet it felt great too 🙂 The games you played before the ‘work’ all really helped. When he is engaged like that, there is a lot of lovely flow and a tremendous amount of success. Yay!!!!
Great job!
Tracy
Hi!
The pattern game really helped re-engage him when something in the environment got him woofing here. I also wonder if tugging would be helpful – like tricks, tugging will bring him to a higher arusal state which can help him ignore distractions and engage more. He was tugging as part of the reward for the tunnel and he was super engaged. And of course. The tunnel reps went great 🙂>His coming back with the toy was a little laggy. (I cut out his out-of-shot shenanigans)>
It is possible he was checking out the environment a bit when he was romping with the toy – a combination of reward and decompression and assessment of the environment. No worries! The retrieve will get better and better as he gets more experienced working in new places.
Hi! All 3 of these sessions went really well 🙂
The pattern game went really well – finding the treat in the grass was the hardest part. It helped get him very engaged!You should put that bouncing up on cue as a trick – so fun! And you can add in any tricks after the pattern game and before the ‘work’. The tricks will bring him to a higher aroual state which is actually helpful!
He did really well finding the jump! Good boy! It was going great til the person asked a question… oops! I guess they didn’t realize you were training a pup! But overall a really strong session in a hard location! Super!!!
Nice work!
TracyGood morning!
She slept on the soft turns in the wingin’ it game and her brain locked it in: no questions or looking at you going to her right or to her left, picking up right where she left off on the last rep from the previous session. Nice tight turns. Gorgeous connection from you, with clear motion and verbals. SUPER!! If you revisit this, keep adding distance. New games are coming today though, so it is perfectly fine if you move on to them.
The plank on the ground might be so simple that it doesn’t even register for her. She was happy to move back and forth with speed and good balance, even with yummy cheese and ball breaks. So you can elevate the plank now, to challenge her balance and teach her how to jump off it. Do you have anything that can lift the plank at least 6 inches off the ground, or even a foot off the ground? She looks ready for that!
The teeter bag game was probably not boring – it is probably a bit harder! This is where having her chase the reward really helps: it keeps her arousal high and gives her a moment to get away from the weird moving board. Then she can decide if the wants to come back or not. Happily, she kept coming back to figure out this puzzle.
You got lots of great hits with her front feet by the end. Let her sleep on it then for the next session – take the tip out entirely and reward her for offering back feet on the teeter when it is not moving. When she realizes what you want, we can add by the tip.
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
How did tryouts go? I saw you got good points which is fantastic after such a long layoff for injury!!! And I know Aelfraed will get his turn in the big ring soon enough 🙂
Holy wow, look at how well he was putting the pieces together! You’ve done lovely foundation work with him that it was easy for him to string it all together. The threadle wraps in particular looked impressive – you had great connection and decel into them, so he got them even without much experience with them. YAY!! So fun!
His teeter work is going really well! The real question is: will there be ice cream involved? LOL!
He seemed super happy with and it was smart to have the physical support of another person 🙂 because the pups do feel a bit safer that way! Can she hold in at one end (maybe the chair side) and he can recall across the board to you at the table?>He has also learned to go up the full height when it is braced up. >
Yay! I call this ‘mountain climbers’ and we get this started in class here very soon 🙂 He already has a nice head start so we can make quick progress.
Are you going to train a 4on position for him? I am not sure how much he weighs but he seems pretty small and so the 4on might be the best bet.
>His current favourite food is bread and butter >
Mine too, Aelfraed, mine too! I would totally jump on the board for that! And kudos to you for bringing th best rewards out!
He was totally into it LOL!! Bread is magic LOL! You can have him jump on from the side a bit in preparation for when we add the bigger pieces of the bang game. And you for backing up – you can center yourself on the board rather than be off to the side, so he can step backwards onto it without taking his eyes off the delicious treats 🙂 You might have to reduce the tip a tiny bit to help him get his back feet on easily. Once he gets backing up going, he can back up into 4on if that is the desired end position. He had 2o2o here so let me know which you will want to do eventually.
Looking at the lazy game:
>He thought the slow version was pretty strange>
Ha! He is always good at expressing his opinions LOL! He didn’t seem concerned about it, just a little judgey. You can throw the rewards further so he can be running more – the goal is that he can be sprinting around even when you aren’t needing to sprint.
>Should we still do more of the slow version though?>
Yes, throw it in here and there – they are basically anti-perfect games We want him to know that it is totally worth his while to find the jumps even if our connection and motion are not quite right 🙂
He did brilliantly when you did add speed! Super fast, found the lines really well (even when you were doing the lazy sends) and he seemed to have no questions. New handling games added today!
He also showed really nice independence commitment on the wing games!
Your connection looked great throughout th session, both with the regular connection and the exit line connection after the crosses. Super!
Since this went amazingly well… you can add more distance 🙂 Can you get him to send to the wings with the wings 6 or 7 meters from the tunnel? Or more? Eventually we would want 10 meters but we don’t need that right now 🙂 That will build up nice distance skills for the international stuff as well as for the Canadian gambles!
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
So sorry for the delay! I answered this in my head but never actually typed it out. Eek!
>between a show in West Palm, another in Elkton, and a crazy few weeks of work, training has definitely been…nearly absent. And we leave for a show in GA Tuesday. >
No worries at all! It sounds like the shows are the fun kind of busy and hopefully being busy at work is still fu 🙂
>I do plan to work on the last 2 weeks of skills next week when we are back! Ingy seems to whine at me when we’re outside for a bathroom break for training, which is super cute! She’s addicted in the best way!>
She is definitely a dog that loves to do ALL THE THINGS. She is going to be really good at a number of different sports – exciting times ahead!!
>Super looking forward to class #2 – when do sign ups open?>
Sign up are open! This Fast Track version is a small group so MaxPup 2 will be small, but I didn’t want to make you all wait another 10 weeks or so til the regular MaxPup folks catch up. Here is the link to MaxPup 2:
>I also have a friend looking to start this class (class #1) fast track edition, do you happen to have the dates of the next round?>
I don’t think we will start it until September 🙁 She can join in this as an independent study and get all the games!
Have fun in Georgia! Keep me posted!
Tracy
