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Hi!
>Thanks for all the great advice on the runs! I am noticing that he’s an energy-matcher and when it’s loud and kind of exciting at the trial he might be a bit harder to get engaged at the start line, but he seems to get amped up and excited by more chaos. I guess that’s better than getting worried as the energy goes up!>
Yes! Some dogs are what I call “Game Day Players” – this means that they work fine in practice… but they light up and add a lot more speed at trials. It is a good thing because they also are able to maintain their engagement and accuracy. Fun!
>YES! It was a real run using the actual course! And, since I hadn’t checked in for this one (oops!) and didn’t have a toy they counted it as official and he even got a Q. So baby dog is now on the board! Didn’t mean to but the course was nicely designed and I wanted to try without a toy and it worked out. 🙂>
That is exciting! Congrats!
>I’m going to try more empty hands, but don’t worry, I won’t be getting greedy. I want him to be super confident and that’s going to take more time. I’m not going to be a “fix-it” person. And we have no trials now until the first weekend in May, so might be a little quiet in the forum for a bit.>
Time is on your side! It takes time to really percolate the right balance for trials, and right now the training side of things is more important to keep building skills and keeping it fun.
>Oh, I am also noticing that he’s getting a bit more confident about running the portion of the course by the crowd, but still has some hesitation there so I’ll be extra sure my cues and connections are solid on those portions.>
And beg/bribe people at class to stand there with their dogs so you can reward him with yummy treats in the moment of running past them.
>I do wish Reacher would find agility more intrinsically rewarding like he seemed to when he was a puppy, but hopefully some of that joy will come back the more confidence he gains. Or, he just won’t be that dog. We shall see. I’m still going to think of anything I can to bring that fun/joy back.>
I think he does find it intrinsically rewarding – part of that is chasing you, which he loves. In most sopts of his trial runs, he is in full on extension. What you might be feeling is that there is a time lag because he has to jump an 8 inch bar, which is slower than running on the flat or wrapping wings. So it feels like you have more time to get ahead but that does not mean he is not running hard 🙂 Also, puppy training doesn’t have the high level of distraction outside the ring – the only spots I see him slowing down to process stuff is the trial distraction areas, but that will go away and he will blast through those too.
Speaking of fun, last night in class I wasn’t really feeling like doing agility in the traditional sense (just in the mood I guess) and just wanted to see if we could have more fun out there, so mainly we just played around with the toys and did only a few small things.
>We mostly just played around in the ring with his toys (no food). Then a bit of chase.>
He seemed to really have a blast chasign the toy – then when you added the jumps, you did a bit of the crazy ‘ready ready’ lead out… he seemed to love that to! Super fast!!!
> Then I tried a couple of distance challenges at the end. For that I wish I’d thrown the toy farther out on the line, but he didn’t seem to have any issue working away from me, so that’s good.
>You can hand a toy or cookie ball to the instructor and have her run with it for him (if he likes that) or throw it really far. That is a fun surprise factor!
>I was also thinking about just keeping him jumping 8″ even though I know he could do 12″. I’m not sure what the norm is these days for running Preferred/Select, but we’re not World Team material and not expecting to compete for super stardom so maybe he’d have more fun at a lower jump height. What do you think?>
There is plenty of super stardom to be had jumping in preferred/select! The competition is as fierce as you want it to be, locally and nationally. True there are no as many European event opportunities, but that might not be something you care about 🙂 I think jumping lower can extend a dog’s career simply because it is easier on their bodies. And it is FUN FUN FUN – one of my dogs started her career in Select and I never moved her out of it (Hot Sauce). And I think Larry Whippet will also spend his career in 16 Select… plenty of competition and opportunities there! So I am on board with 8 inches for him, or spending the first competition year at 8 then revisit the possibility of 12.
Great job here!
TracyHi!
>No video today, I forgot to line up my camera with my video markers so there’s nothing to see 😛 Oh well!!>
Bummer! But is sounds like a good session!
> He did great when I connected 🙂 When I didn’t connect, he ran straight towards me- seems reasonable!>
Yes – and great feedback from him about whether you were visibly connected or not.
>And then we did the wrap/tunnel verbals game, he really wants that tunnel LOL. We did ok when he was on my right, he struggled more on my left and I moved the wing pretty far away to get a successful rep then we stopped. We kept it short and will revisit!>
When you revisit it, you can also help by putting his toy in the gap between the wing and tunnel. So when he is on your left and you cue the wrap, the toy is already visible there and he can have the ‘a-ha!’ moment of wrapping and not just tunneling 🙂
Keep me posted!
Tracy
Hi!
>(We call them Butcher Boys here, no idea why)>
Butcher Boys! Hmmmmmm now I need to know why LOL!!
>This was hilarious, not just because Grin had lots of fun but because it was so hard for me and I wasn’t expecting it to be.>
I agree – there is a lot of handler hilarity because we get all tripped up and forget where to be, etc. It is a good game to help teach proprioception for HANDLERS hahahaha!!
>I’m so used to just doing and not thinking with my more experienced dogs, this was a really good exercise and it also made me realise that I don’t have the connection with him yet that I do with them, which I wouldn’t expect to have but still something to be mindful of at times.>
It definitely takes a while to develop that with the youngsters. I think that is mainly because the youngsters lack the experience and rehearsal to pick out the very first part of a cue and respond to it – they need to see the whole cue and it needs to be VERY big and clear… then there is extra processing time because they are still having to ‘think’ about it while experienced adults dogs can respond much more automatically.
For example, thinking of a blind cross: my 5 year old dog will see the beginning of the head turn and shoulder turn, and will change sides because he recognizes it as the start of the cue. My 14 month old dog needs to see the completed blind and strong re-connection then his brain needs to process it and send info to his feet, in order to make the side change. It is hard for me to do that consistently and on time for the youngster, so any errors are my fault and he gets rewarded to maintain the motivation to keep trying even when I am bad haha 🙂
> in fact I’m going to run it with Sonnet as I figure if I can get the timing right with her then Grin should be easier next time lol.>
You will probably need earlier timing with Grin because Sonnet can recognize the cues sooner 🙂
>At the start of the video I’ve left in me standing there thinking about what to do as I think it sums up my whole session,>
Ha! That is relatable. Your session went really well!!! And you started adding in more speed, which is great because he was able to open up and run too. He was happy to stay on the side you cued him too, thanks to good connection!
The blinds went well! Having the toy in the inside hand will help turn your shoulders to set up the ‘inside’ turns when he is between you and the tunnel. But he was reading the side changes well!!
You can throw the start cookie further away to give yourself more time to get ahead, or use a stay as well – that can help with the timing to show the re-connection even sooner. But I do like to mix in the food to build up the value of the food – it is a stealthy way of getting the dogs to drive for the food, because it is being paired with running then a toy 🙂
> we only had one go at the double cross which was super late but at least I get the idea.>Since he is fast and needs the info early: the first blind can come as soon as he starts moving towards you, which means the 2nd blind can start as soon as he changes sides for the first blind. It will feel really fast!!
Great job here!
TracyHello and welcome back! I love the Blast dog!!! He is living up to his name: truly a blast to watch! And he is gorgeous. And I didn’t realize that Mosa was his littermate: SO COOL!!!!
>Blast is now 8 months old, a bratty teenager, and ready to MOVE. I’m starting to learn his attention span is much better when motion is involved, so I’m really starting to have to tailor his training to his own needs and wants.>
You’re probably seeing the devotion to movement partially because he is an adolescent (their brains cause them to move a lot) and also because dopamine is likely being released in training (which is good!) and dopamine increases motivation in the form of, you guessed it, wanting to move. LOL!! All good, we will survive adolescence and you are already doing a great job tweaking things to incorporate his need to move. I mean, I train my stays with movement, so movement can certainly be used as part of all of these games and rewards 🙂
> He really disliked my manners minder jamming so much though!>
Ha! Yes, the MMs are ANNOYING with their high rate of jamming. My terrier used to smack it HARD with her front feet when it didn’t dispense fast enough and he seems to be approaching the jams with that same spirit LOL!!
>I think we really got the hang of this one, >
Yes, the set point is going REALLY well. His stay looks great which helps a whole lot and it looks like the distance between the 2 jumps is spot on so the striding is good, and the MM is far enough away too.
> I mostly wanted to make sure I had him set up close enough to the jump for this to be effective. >
He is a little too far from jump 1 – his front feet were tapping down in front of it. You can have him sit a few inches closer to it, so when you release the stay, his front feet lift up and only land after jump 1 rather than before it. That asks him to push from his rear and stabilize his core.
>Also, with him being only 8 months, what sort of limitations should I put on this type of exercise?>
This is the type of game you can find the ‘sweet spot’ (distance, etc) to get the proper rehearsal of mechanics, then maybe re-visit it once a week for 5 reps total. Definitely not a daily thing 🙂
> I had the bar set to 8″ and 10″,
The first bar will stay at 8 basically forever 🙂 And every month or so we can raise bar 2 by 2 inches. So a few reps of 12 inches when he is in the 9 month range, 14″ when he is 10-11 months old, 16 inches when he is year or so… full height somewhere closer to 2 years old for a large boy dog 🙂
And when we add different jumping puzzles, the 2nd bar can go back down to 8 or 10 inches, so he is solving the puzzle but not having to think about height yet.
>but is the point of the exercise to create muscle memory?>
It is to rehearse good mechanics and develop neuronal memory, so his brain can control the legs as his body continues to develop.
>If so, would it make sense to shelf this exercise until he’s a bit older and can jump closer to his full height?>
Doing it at this age is good because it is low impact for his joints/muscles, but great for developing the mechanics we want to wire in – mainly because we can control the mechanics very easily at this stage. When he is older, adding the higher bar will be really easy because his brain will already ‘know’ how to power through these.
And since this went really well, check out adding the moving target to it that I added on Tuesday – that is also useful proprioceptive learning for a baby dog, because there is more arousal and movement 🙂
> I guess I might have a lot of those questions as we do more jump work lol.>
Questions are great, keep ’em coming!! I personally take a long time to get dogs up to taller bars, because we obsess on mechanics (mainly, teaching them to maintain good mechanics even when they are really ramped up) and also because we know the brains and bodies are not really mature for many, many more months. My large male dogs don’t see full height jumping til they are 2 years old but it is an easy transition to it when they are ready and I am happy with their form and speed.
Wind In Your Hair: this went well too: fast and FUN!!! The placed reward past the jump made it really exciting – and also made it harder to do the wrap at first (he was a little sticky, thinking his way through that puzzle. He sorted that out really well and was fast to the wing by the end of the session too.
The next step with the reward is to NOT have it placed… instead, you throw it as soon as he exits the wing and looks at the jump. That will help strengthen the GO cue as the jump cue, rather than the presence of the toy as the cue to go to the jump. You will probably need a heavy toy to throw so it travels far 🙂 You can also add in starting really clsoe to the wing and staying there til he finishes going around it, then accelerate up the line. That way he practices driving way ahead of you.
>Blast took this one a little too seriously after the first few reps and started to slingshot himself around the jump. . I did a quick adjustment of the wing I was using for the wrap and that helped a lot. Any changes I should be making with this exercise? Does it matter much how I have the wing positioned?>
Ha! Yeah, well, there is supposed to be arousal in here so he was definitely on board with that. But when he went past the jump at 1:04 and 1:16, he was correct: the wing position caused him to exit on the line to the backside of the jump so he was correct to stay on his line (that is a skill that will serve you well in the future!). So you can send around to the other side of the wing and do a FC, so he exits facing straight to the front side of the jump rather than potentially on the line to the backside.
You can add more room between the wing and the jump now: distance adds challenge. But I think it will still be easy for him.
Great job on these!!
Tracy
Hi!
She was finding her jump really well here and great job adding her GO verbal! You can mark with her chase marker and throw a little sooner: as soon as she looks at the jump after exiting the cone wrap. You can add more distance between the cone and wing to help make it easier. The goal is that the toy is visible out ahead of her before she takes off for the jump.
On the sends to the cone, she was not always sure when to start so you can step to it with your dog-side leg to affirm that yes, she should start moving to it when your hand leaves her neck.
>Should I be continuing to move through the jump? I tend to slow down or stop my motion as she’s going over the jump to get the toy. Is it contradictory that I am slowing down as my reward placement has her powering through the jump?>
Yes, for now try to maintain steady motion (running or jogging or even walking) til she gets to the toy. Try not to show her deceleration as you throw and as she approaches the jump, because that might dilute the GO verbal versus the turn cues we will be adding very soon 🙂 Eventually it won’t be an issue because the verbals will be strong and independent, but for now we can match your motion to the verbals.
Great job here!
TracyHi!
I agree, this went great!
>We did work a little on just the tunnel (not in this video) using the verbals with mostly success and a few not so great reps.>
This is actually the way you want your sessions to go: a few failures mixed in, because failures are just as key to success when the pups are learning. I try not to go past 2 failures total in the session, but we also don’t want 100% success.
>I think when it comes to the tunnel I need to be very careful of the setups with my positioning and making sure there is success and a good loop of “do the thing, get reinforced, then come back to me” in order to avoid all the self reinforcing tunnel behavior.>
Yes, you were really strong with that here. You can also reward her for coming back and setting up:
She seemed a little ‘slippery’, meaning she did not want to be held. You can put a collar on her so as you line her up at your side, you can put a hand onf her collar and give her a treat.
The dig dig from your left side (first rep on that side and last rep on the video) was the best ones because you did not give her any physical help at all, only the verbal – you didn’t move at all or twitch your cookie hand LOL! A little physical help is fine, but we can fade it out as she gets better and better with these discriminations.
>Is my placement of reward ok?
Yes. And you can incorporate a toy as well: throw it for the tunnel exit and tug from your hand for the wrap. Yes, it will increase arousal but that is a good next step for her.
The other thing to add is to curve the tunnel a tiny bit so the tunnel entry is a little more visible as she comes around the wing. And if she is fine with that – move the wing a little closer. She is doing great!
Nice work here 🙂
TracyGood morning!
> We practiced this the other night and I was surprised how “bad” I was. I definitely thought she stayed but once I looked back at the video, she broke just before release many times… so this was take two from tonight and I tried to slow down my timing of release.>
Well, you sorted out all of the issues from that session because this video looked GREAT! You are getting really fabulous at analyzing your own mechanics and sorting them out to set up success. WOW!!
The first rep and last rep were perfection in terms of connection (watching her as you moved to your start position), putting the toy on the ground, marking, then throwing the reward back to her.
2nd and 3rd reps had releases to take the jumps: I also really liked these. Your mechanics were clear and she was using her body with power! Maintaining good jumping mechanics even with the excitement of the moving target looked great. Fantastic! Since she is only 8 months, we don’t need to raise the bars yet but getting her to hold the stay and work her mechanics with the excitement of the toy and handler movement is incredibly valuable! This game can be re-visited maybe once a week, and you can raise the height of bar 2 by 2 inches maybe once a month for now? We have other jumping ‘puzzles’ coming that will continue to challenge her 🙂
Great job!
TracyHi! Nice sessions here!
Leash off games are off to a good start. She found it exciting 🙂 These 2 videos were the same, let me know if there was another one. The next step here is to be standing, then moving: take the leash off and reward after she sticks with you. Then if that goes well, take the leash off and reward after you move a few steps and she sticks with you. Then add a jump to the picture: for her to ignore and not to run to, when the leash comes off.
Weaves: having certain parts more open for success and certain parts more closed is great! You can also add a cone wrap or wing wrap before the weaves so you have more control over her approach – she needs to sort the entry when she is coming at them from more speed, so the wrap before it will help a lot.
> I havent done alot of me changing the angle of the send since went to more poles>
Time to add that, because it will change her striding and you want her to sort that out now, before the poles get straighter.
For the contacts: at this point, try to be more systematic about moving across them: you can back chain like you did on the last rep here, but that also means not letting her start without you 🙂 If the contacts can’t be lowered, then definitely back chain. You can bring her over to it on leash then pick her up (thankfully she is small :)) Also – you will want to add criteria for the end. Does she have a target you can use? On the video here, she went down the plank but jump off the side (did not touch yellow) and turned back to you. So definitely time to add a target to help her complete criteria.
Nice work on these! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Hi!
Hoping that you get NO MORE SNOW! We have spring here, so I will send some good weather to you 🙂He is finding the jump really well on the wind in your hair game. You were saying ‘jump’ but you can also say “GO!” depending on what your dictionary of verbals is. GO can be more in line with the extension here and toy placement.
> I’m trying to throw the toy earlier. >
Yes, it can still be earlier but I think that had to do with him not loking at the front of the jump right away due to how he was exiting the start wing. Here is a subtle change in mechaincs to help that:
Use a FC around the start wing to set him on a straight line to the jump bar. When you were sending around to the outside of the start wing, he was correctly exiting on the line to the backside of the jump. We will want him to stay on that line as we add backsides, so for now we won’t open that can of worms and have him exit the wing wrap facing the front of the bar.Also, throw the reward further for most of these: it was landing on his landing spot when he was on your left so he was ticking the bar.
When you are able to get outside again, open up the distance even more for more running – and then you can stay closer to the start wing as he exits it, so he can feel the full excitement of driving way ahead of you 🙂 If the distance gets HUGE and it is hard to throw the toy semi-accurately, feel free to place it out ahead on those reps.
>Then we went inside and tried the wrap verbal/discrimination with the short training tunnel and wing. A total disaster. Could not keep him out of the tunnel. >
The wing/tunnel game was hard! But definitely NOT a disaster. You made excellent adjustments to help him understand the game – failures are helpful as long as there are not too many of them (I think you had 3 total on this video). You got the 2 failures right at the start, so you made an adjustment:
great job turning him the other way on the wing on rep 3, then using the toy to bring him through on the other reps. I also loved how you used earlier rotation on your send to help cue the wrap (last rep) and he didn’t need the toy to help him as much there. YAY!!Overall, a really strong session. He gave you info, you adjusted, he was able to be VERY successful.
My only suggestion is that for the next session, hold onto him longer so he hears you say the verbal 4 or 5 or 6 times before you let him move. On this session, you were saying it and letting him move almost simultaneously, so I am not sure how much he was processing the verbal.
>I need A LOT more space than I have inside.>
Disagree for this game! Keeping it to a tiny space is perfect 🙂 You both did great sorting it out!!
Nice work here!
TracyGood morning!
Moving target with the mini jump went well. The toy is a good size and I think it will work well for adding it to the set point shortly. He was driving to it nicely and was looking at it for the most part (sometimes glancing up at you when you didn’t release right away LOL!!)
Skipping ahead to the set point:
His line up position was good, he was able to step in nicely. Yay! I think we can tweak the sweet spot of distance between the jumps and reward placement: What was the distance between the 2 jumps?
> I started the bar at 16″ for a couple and then raised it to 20″ (which was his first time doing 20″). He will ultimately be a 24″ pony jumper but he is now 14 months and I just wanted to see if he had any issue (besides not realizing the bar was raised on the first one!) When do you think about raising it?>
When we have found the sweet spot of distance and reward placement for him and worked the moving target: raising the height will be easy 🙂 For now, keep it low because we have not quite found his sweet spot on this setup.
> I sort of feel like for set point, he could handle 20″ for a while….and maybe in a couple months take it to 24″….but for short sequencing I would like to keep it at 16″. Does this make sense?>
Yes it makes total sense to gradually fold it all in but also he is only 14 months old – so even though he is tall, there is a lot of physical maturing and mechanics-sorting-out to be done. For the big dogs, no need to get to full height of 24 until they are 2 or so.
I think the distance might be a little too close – this was causing him to have to compress more than we want him too, making the jumping over bar 2 not as fluid or powerful. The reward target was a little close to bar 2 also, so he was having to land on his shoulders and not power through with his feet. For now, keep bar 2 lower til we figure out the sweet spot of distance: Add a foot to whatever the distance was here, and the reward target will be 12 feet or more from jump 2. His stay looks fabulous, which allows us a lot of flexibility to find the sweet spot! Then when we find it, we will add the moving target to this (info on that was posted on Tuesday :))
The wing versus tunnel proofing went well at the beginning, then he got mad because things were confusing and he was not sure what was correct. His jumping up intensified in direct correlation to being told he was wrong, so a couple of ideas to help him out:
– to emphasize the verbals even more and clarify the info: start him at your side, holding his collar, saying the verbal 3 or 4 or 5 times… then let go and do not move 🙂 That can challenge him to find the correct obstacle but also having heard the verbal a few times should increase success. This includes the tunnel verbal, because hearing it only once when it was paired with a physical cue that looked like the wrap cue was confusing.
– stick to single wraps (or tunnel cues) rather than doing multi-wraps here (cueing him to wrap 2 or 3 times in a row). He seemed to perceive being sent again as an error marker, then he was guessing. So if he gets it right? Reward rather than send again.
– if he does choose a ‘wrong’ answer, don’t say ‘try again’ because he jumps up at you when you say it. You can just line him up at your side with a cookie to reset, then hold his collar and cue it again. And remember to live by the 2 failure rule: if you get 2 total failures in the session, make it easier to get success! A couple of failures are good for learning – but more than that ends up in frustration and he gives you direct feedback on that 🙂
Nice work here!
TracyHi!
>That’s what happens when you don’t want to make another trip inside to retrieve the tape measure!>
Because she is little, I bet you can measure it once relative to your feet – and then just use your feet. 28” would be 4 footfalls for me, with my heel touching my toes on each step (if that makes sense :))
>I increased the distance to the jump for the wind in hair and threw the toy sooner – she tended to run around the jump to grab the toy so we will keep working on this.>
Dogs keep us on our toes! So if your throws were on time and then she ran around… delay the throw 🤣 Small dogs have to take a lot of strides so they also have a lot of time to go around the jump. So maybe wait til she is halfway between the wing and jump before throwing?
>my question is: when you do reverse spin, what is the cue? is it a “left/right” or a wrap cue?>
This is an excellent question!! It depends on the context and the specific line you want, based on how much collection you want and how you want her to exit the wing.
In this scenario:
On both the FC and the reverse spin, we want her to come back around the wing very immediately so I think the wrap verbals fit best here. The left/right soft turn verbals are for the race track when she doesn’t come back around the wing, and also if she was going to go wide around the wing and not come back across the plane of it immediately.Her commitment and speed look great here! Any errors were connection errors:
You had really good connection on the tunnel exit at :03 (and at :37 when you want to send her to the start wing) but then you softened it and looked forward at :04 so she curled in to you.
Compare to :15 and :26 and the other reps where you maintained the connection brilliantly so she committed really well!Race track went great! She did really well staying on the line, even after all of those wraps!
She ended up on the other side of you when you did the spin at :59. The FC was a little late (after she arrived at the wing) so as she was exiting the wing, she saw your face looking over your right shoulder. And then when you looked over your left shoulder to finish the spin, she was already at your side on the right side. She is FAST!!
Excellent adjustment in the timing on the spin on the last rep – the FC started significantly earlier (before she got to the wing) which allowed you to get to the left side sooner too. As you finish the blind cross element of the spin, point your arm back to her more so she can see your eyes more, which will help her find the new side easily.
Great job here!!!!
Tracy
Good morning!
Great to see him back in action, he is so fun!
>We had a busy busy week/weekend- 5 hour drive, hotel, dog show, working on a lot of happy emotional management for the young man to try to keep him confident and happy and not too much barking in the hotel room despite definitely not getting enough sleep (all of us).>
I can relate about the lack of sleep! These trips and exposures are fabulous for him and are setting him up for a fun future!
>Also, he is 8 months old today (3/31)!! Big man is growing up! I think if I’m lucky I have a solid 12″ dog in every organization (hoping he didn’t creep over 14″ but I think he is done growing at least)>
Fingers crossed for 12”!! I have some measuring ‘ideas’ to help if he is on the border of the cutoff 🙂 I have always found my boys to be taller at 8 months than they are when they get measured when they are closer to 2. Their chests fill out and shoulders settle in and get muscled so they end up a little shorter than their adolescent selves.
Looking at wind in your hair:
>This video is long because we tugged so much and “toy management” took a lot of time, he was super into the tuggy today!>
That is great! I always prefer that the dogs have more time playing in between reps rather than just doing a zillion reps without the play parties. Plus you were able to keep the party going while also expanding the distance between the wing and jump or changing sides.
The transition from the tugging back to the game was a little harder for him because he wanted the tug so much, but I am fine with that for now 🙂 You were smooth about getting a treat in – you can toss it a couple of feet away if you want to buy some time to get the toy sorted into a smaller ball in your hand before he grabbed it again.
He was super here! He had a really easy time finding the jump after the wrap – excellent connection from you, and excellent line of motion! His excitement for the toy bubbled over into excitement for the game, and he was SPEEDY. LOVE IT!
He only had one question, at the very end (2nd to last rep) – you changed sides and added running, and he didn’t quite pick up the new side. Your connection was good and I think an experienced dog would have found the new side easily. As a youngster, the additional motion overrode the connection so he went to your other side. You made a terrific adjustment on the very last rep at 4:13 and really amplified the connection – and he nailed it. Click/treat for you both! Having the one error is actually good for overall learning, in terms of him seeing what gets the reward and what does not.
So definitely keep expanding the distance and adding more running like you did here. Amplify the connection a lot like you did here at the end as you add more and more running to get even more driving ahead. As you expand the distance, you can throw the toy sooner: as soon as he looks at the jump after exiting the wrap, yo can throw it.
Smiley face is going well!! His commitment looked great!
Now that there is more running in all of these games, you can play with relaxing your arms a bit, bending your elbows into almost a sprinter position because it will be easier to run these lines as they expand. The challenge with small dogs is maintaining the brilliant connection you had here while using arms even less. It will take a little experimenting to see what is comfy for you both 🙂
>This video is basically a few reps and a LOT of me having no idea which turn is left or right. >
For these games, it might seem silly but I give myself a walk through before running it so I can remember the verbals 🙂 And each time I change sides, I do another little walk through to spot check the verbals. I find it challenging to run my young dog AND remember the verbals, even if it is easy to remember the verbals with the adult dogs. And I video the walk through to make sure I am doing it right, after having too many sessions of the verbals being wrong LOL!! That 20 second walk through makes a big difference 🙂
> I can see on the wing closer to the camera I’m not giving him much room to complete the wrap which is possibly why he runs into me on one rep lol, sorry buddy.>
Yes that was at about 1:30. You handled it brilliantly by making it a game! Fun!
What was happening there and in a couple of other spots was that you were going a bit past the wing as you did the FC and waited for him, and also changing the toy from hand to hand. That drew his attention up to you, so he was not sure if he should go for the toy or change sides or stay on the original side.
So you can decel and send into the FC more, staying on the ‘takeoff’ side more and doing the FC sooner and moving away, so he sees the exit before he gets all the way around the wing.
And since you don’t need a precision reward here, you can also run these games without the toy in your hand so there is no accidental switching. That will make the cues sooner because there is no switching, and it is great practice for his future trial career, where he will be running courses and you won’t have the toy in your hand. I shove the toy in a pocket or down my shirt – it is not a good look LOL but it helps with mechanics.
>In the last rep he got distracted by a very good smell in the grass, and he wasn’t able to quickly reengage so we ended the session.>
Yeah, that was interesting! Nothing strange happened and he was working at a high rate of success, and the session was not that long. It might have indeed been a great smell, or his big weekend caught up to him and he was brain tired? It was smart to end the session. He did great!
Great job here – I am excited to keep building this up to sequence work!
Tracy
That’s understandable. One of the ways I got the dogs happy to be wrapped was to put one small piece higher up on their leg then immediately throw frisbees 🙂 That fast-tracked things really well, and I know she likes her frizzers!
T
Good morning!
She did well here and was very successful finding the jump! Super!!!
>so I resorted to throwing treats and that seemed to get more drive from her.>
Yes, she seemed to like thrown treats the best here. You can also try putting treats in a lotus ball or treat hugger so it is even easier to throw them.
A suggestion to make the line smoother for her as we start to expand the distance between the barrel & jump:
You and MissL start between the barrel and the jump, with you facing the barrel (with your back to the jump). Start her at your side then send her around the outside of the barrel so as she exits the barrel, you have done the FC and are facing the jump.When you started on the far side of the barrel and facing the jump, she was not always sure if you wanted the barrel or the jump (because you were facing the jump) and the verbal could apply for both! But when you started facing the barrel more (like at :58, 1:43, and especially 2:05) he had no questions about going to the barrel, found the jump easily, and also picked up speed! Yay!
>I hope I am not the only handler that gets directionally challenged at times, I have to think and double think sometimes in the drills to make sure I am going or directing her the correct direction!>
I can totally relate! And with all the verbals getting added…. I often do a walk through without the dog and video it, to se if I am doing it right or not 🙂
Great job here!
Tracy
