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Hi!
>Speaking of footing and slipping, I still just don’t like dirt.>
Yeah, dirt is HARD to keep in good condition. It needs to be worked a lot and also does best in a controlled climate. The best “dirt” is actually special horse footing but even then, it needs special care and constant care. And cold weather makes it extra challenging.
I think you accomplished the goals here really well!
>She waited fairly well, just one bark that I can remember and it was when I was distracted talking to someone. She could do pattern game or volume dial, but the “engaged chill” I had in mind for her was similar to what you do with your dogs where they have their front feet on you and you touch them somewhere, and she is happy with this at home and in low arousal, but once arousal goes up, she doesn’t really want to be touching.>
Only one bark while waiting is really good! And I am glad she is happy to eat treats – BCs and whippets are not known for always eating food in high arousal situations.
If she is happy with the standing-on-you engaged chill at home, I bet it will happen at trials with a bit more experience. You can do the slowed pattern game variation of engaged chill near the ring, and try the non-food version of it as far from the ring as possible (the parking lot, for example, if it is not too cold)
Looking at the video:
I love that the crowd cheers for her! So fun! She did great here: seems very relaxed, walked halfway across the ring with you to the start position without needing the leash, and read the handling really well! Yes, starting in the middle of the ring was weird on the first run but part of that was trying to get connection to get her to the jump after the tunnel.
>. I had to manage it heavily and work to keep her engaged and with me, but wouldn’t have been such a big deal if I hadn’t had to go so far?>
Agree – you only had to manage it because it was a long way from the leash and she had to pass a lot of obstacles. It will be no problem when you use a regular start jump.
She is reading even subtle handing: for example, at :36 you wanted the jump after you did a FC but you were backing up as you did it, so she stayed on the line which took her past the jump.
At 1:42 your feet did turn her to the RC line (I think you wanted a wrap :)) but did not turn her to the RC line at 1:49 (I think you wanted the RC there). But she was still happy to play and work even with the small miscommunications. Yay!Because she is so relaxed and happy, I think you can ask for a stay now if you haven’t started doing that already.
I think the jumping form for the jump in the corner was because it was a bit of a lead change to get it then *surprise* there was someone in the corner.
The dropped bar was not a form issue, it was a handler error 🙂 You took off super fast after the FC and didn’t quite support the line – she was turning to her right then realized she should take the next jump and had to adjust to go get back on the line (you were pulling away). So more connection and more line support will get rid of the down bar there.
>Makes me nervous to up the height >
She is totally ready for you to do more height in grids and one jump stuff, with you moving. Definitely add in motion early, don’t do long periods of standing still.
>no going to it prematurely (which was my biggest concern). >
She did great!!!!
>We worked on our mechanics of playing a bit, outing the toy to put the leash on and smoothly TIGHTEN THE MARTINGALE (takes two hands, so that’s a skill for me) then keep tugging. >
This is where shopping will make your life a lot easier: French martingale will solve that problem!
Biothane French MartingalesThey have all the same positives of a regular martingale but you don’t have to tighten them, they tighten themselves. The examples in the link are biothane – I have a couple of those but I also have a ton of fabric ones and leash/French martingale combos so the dogs can tug on the leash (and shove their heads in the martingale at the end of the run.
Overall, things are going really well! When is the next trial opportunity?
Tracy
Hi!
Brrr 45 degrees seems cold for your part of the world!!!
The dog on left session went well – the bulk of it was spent getting her to line up and stay but then ended with a nice send to the barrel! Getting lots of rewards in for the sit really set the tone for you being able to lead out, which then makes the release to the barrel much easier.
The good work with the stays carried over into the dog on right session. She did really well with the stays and that resulted in a great send to the barrel, especially at the end. Super!
Having the toy on the line might have been a bit of a pain 🙂 but it allowed you to throw it to her and that seemed to be very reinforcing for her. So it was worth the annoyance of having to untangle her or stopping her from chewing on it 🙂
You can build up more lateral distance bit by bit, but for now continue your focus on rewarding the stay – she is doing really well and the stay becomes more and more important as the games get harder.
Great job!
Tracy
Hi!
Stays looked good here – yay!!! Nice job mixing in a ton of reinforcement!
>(Gruff said it was hard,>
I think what was hard was the presence of the toy. He was quite perfect at the beginning when the toy was not in the picture yet and then also lovely when you went back to food towards the end. When you added the toy, he wanted to drive to you.
My guess is that it was more about reward history than anything else – he has a LOT of rewards under his belt for releasing directly to you when you have the toy. So I think he was defaulting to that and not really ‘seeing’ the cone.
You can help him out a couple of ways:
– you can place the toy out past the cone so he looks at it and drives to it when he is released.
– you can lead out to your position and slowly put your hand and leg into position pointing towards the ‘takeoff’ spot of the cone 🙂 and see if he focuses forward, then release if you even get an eyeball flick to the cone.And there is the distinct possibility that he will sleep on it and be able to do it with the toy in your hand tomorrow – he ended on a brilliant rep with the toy here!
Great job :) Tracy
Hi! Using his pivot bowl in the stay game was clever! It has a lot of value AND he was probably used to offering behavior on it. Responding to the cue to sit with it there was a good challenge and he did great! I think the only trouble he had with the sit cue was when his back feet ended upon the fireplace hearth.
He seemed to have no trouble holding the stay with the bowl – but he stood up a couple of times when you walked away with conviction, towards where I think you normally put your treats/toys. That was a big challenge for him so it a good one to work on: getting the sit and then walking away fast to go get a toy, for example, off the table… and that toy can become the reward.
Nice work here!
TracyHi! These sessions looked really strong!
The recalls look great! She was very into it! You can do crazy things like change directions, or try to hide from her 🙂 Keep it unpredictable and fun!
And the perch work is also going well. I think the height of the bowl might be just fine – she has grown 😂 and it didn’t look like she had too much weight in her rear here. And she was pretty balanced with her movement! She was pivoting nicely back to center after the cookie toss, and also following your hand too. I bet she will start to offer it if you don’t have your hand out there – it might be fun to see by standing still and not helping with the hand (and click/treat when she does move the hind end).
Nice work here!
Tracy
Hi! Really nice session here! You were tackling the minny pinny AND the toy retrieving and I think you made great progress in both!
>I had two toys i didn’t think I was doing remote reinforcement because I had the treats on me, but the learner determines the reinforcement and he let me know that toys are his preferred reinforcement.>
Yes, he gave great info about his love of the toys 🙂 Good job sorting that out quickly so he could then be very successful! I think the best thing will be a cookie for finishing the wrap then tugging like you did starting at 3:56 and afterwards. Those were lovely reps! For the next session, you can add what you’d like the verbals to be: I think you were wanting to do a turn-towards and turn-away verbal but maybe I am remembering incorrectly?
>We also did some work with toy swapping and letting him win. I have ordered some more of the very expensive toy that is his favourite …. so expensive… Temu for the win. Hahah
>That went well! He was not going too far away with the toy he won and came back to the 2nd toy pretty quickly! And you were high energy and fun, which he found very engaging too. Very nice! And yes, we will all need to get 2nd and 3rd jobs to pay for all the puppy toys 😂
Nice work!!
TracyHi!
She really seemed to like the ball retrieve game! Great forward focus and drive to the ball!
A few more verbals will really help answer her questions:
She drove right to it on the rep (maybe because it was still rolling?) but I think on the 2nd and 3rd reps she needed a verbal cue like get it – you were quiet and she was not sure if she should go to it.
And you can add her ‘out’ cue for when you want her to give it back and go to the toy.
Lateral lead out video:
Great job getting her excited to play then lined up! She looked excited but also solid in the stay. Nice job with the rewards!
About the send to the barrel:
Your position relative to it was great! To get her to drive to it, you can rotate to face it a bit: your hips and shoulders will be facing the object, and your step/arm will be pointing to the ‘takeoff’ spot (pretend there is a bar. There :)) That will give her a stronger indication of the line to the object. When you were releasing, you were facing straight forward, which pulled her past the object. And it does indeed look like a threadle wrap line, which she offered too at 1:26 (overachiever! Good girl!) So facing the object and stepping towards it should really help.Great job here!!
Tracy
Hi!
Is everyone sharing the one poor raccoon, or did you all get the same toy? LOL! She definitely like it!!
The pups all had some questions about the connection/line to the wing, versus the toy. She had a little trouble with the left turns, so when that happens you can switch to the right turns and see if that is easier. It is possible that the combo of ignoring the great toy AND turning right was too hard.
When you did ask for the left turn, she did better for sure! Having the barrel on a better line (it was too far off the line on the very first left turn rep).
She also had questions about whether it was toy or barrel, especially when you were not that far ahead of her on the tunnel exit to set the line. So you can send her to the tunnel from further up the line, so you are at least halfway to the barrel or more when she exits the tunnel.
I am glad she she was into tugging on it, but when you get that many questions from her (“tug or barrel, human?”), you can tuck the tug into a pocket to clarify that it was the barrel and not the tug.
>I might have gone 1 rep too much, lol>
Yes, when you took her off the toy and took her collar, she deflated because there were too many errors. Remember that you are only allowed 2 errors total in the session 🙂 and it is perfectly fine to tuck the toy away and bring it out after the wrap.
Nice work here!!
Tracy
Hi!
Minny pinny is going well! She figured it out really quickly and looked strong in both directions (although she seems to prefer turning to her left). Nice job rewarding her in the position parallel to the wing to get the additional turn on the ending!
Adding the bumps and the verbals went great! Click/treat to you for holding her so she could hear. The verbal a few ties before she started moving, to really build up the understanding of the new verbal.
You can totally reward with a toy here too!
On the rocking horse games: Great jo getting her tugging! I think she needed an extra moment to line up and go into send mode when you transitioned from the tugging to the cone send. So you can get the toy back, line her up, take a moment… then send her. You were both a little twitchy on that first rep at :50 so the line up moment will help.
I am not sure if she was looking at the toy at the beginning or had trouble turning to her right – getting her going with food looked really good, so you can add the toy back in and see if more connection helps her ignore the toy. The FCs, spins and race tracks all looked strong here!!
The stay game is going well! She seems pretty happy to stay and get all those rewards thrown back to her 🙂
When you released her to the cone, I think you were a little far from it on the first rep. You adjusted to be a bit closer on the next rep and she did great! So you can be just 3 or 4 feet away at first, then gradually add more and more distance to the lateral send.
Tunnel rocking horse:
>I started on her stronger turning side but she kept cutting behind me. She was fine the other direction. Thinking maybe she was going for the toy I hid it and she got it right. Not sure if that’s what it was original was doing something else different……>
I think her left turns might be the stronger side at this point!
And it was a combination of things that were causing her to cut behind you:
On the reps where she went behind you, it was because as she exited the tunnel, there was not a lot of connection and giant flapping animal pelt LOL 😂 on the other side (which also happened to be the left turn side). So I think there were a combination of factors:
The suggestion to try one on the other side was great! You had a LOT more connection AND it was going into a left turn (and I think the toy was a little more subdued :)) so it went a lot better!!
I grabbed screenshots of the difference in connection on the right turn side versus left turn side:
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1_jY94Owap2YQj5SNwEVsWbz1QX_qE4DvVFjQKDdtiME/edit?usp=sharing
And at the very end, you made a HUGE connection while containing the flappy toy and she was able to get the right turn. Yay!
So the big connection is a big win, and also containing the flappy pelt into a smaller toy that is not swinging around will really help too.
Nice work here!
Tracy
Hi!
I agree, he did great!!!
>He is having trouble focusing on the mama(or maybe the toy too)! >
Do you mean focusing *too much* on the mama? His questions were about your hand/arm position on the sending – they were good questions!
I grabbed screenshots for the moments. It ll happens so fast when he is running, but the screenshots tell you what he thinks is clear info and what is causing the questions/arm chomps.
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1dNXzzwA9uErfQV8WFMVyKWoKVMLJO4KBMGwHNuCD5Dk/edit?usp=sharing
What wa happening was when you pointed ahead of him as he exited the tunnel, you either got a big look/spin back to you, or he chomped your arm. That is because when we point ahead of the dog on a send, it blocks connection and turns our shoulders to a different line. So they either turn towards us to look closer at our line of motion, or they get a little frustrated and jump up/deliver a tooth hug.
Compare to the moments when your arm was low, pointing to his nose (so arm was back when he was behind you until he was past you) – that was when he was GREAT to the wing. No questions, no tooth hugs 🙂 There was a rep or two where he came off the wing at the last moment but that was because you rotated away a heartbeat too early.
So for the next session – move the wings in a little closer so it is easier for him to find them and easier for you to run with your arm low and locked back to his nose the whole time. As he exits the tunnel, think of it as doing the send with your arm pointing to his nose and looking him right in the eyeballs as you deliver the verbals 🙂
>I’m not sure why I threw the toy>
Ha! I thought it was a good throw, to reward the go after the tunnel.
>so I brought out the treat and train.>
That definitely helped but I want to see if we can train your arms 🙂 and we want the feedback from him that the treat and train does not allow for because it is so visible. On the very last rep, your arm was very pointy and he went to the MM. But I am not sure he would have gone to the wing if the MM was not there. So moving the wings in closer and running with your arm locked back and following his nose to see if that helps with commitment to the wings.
> I think on the whole he was much better on not hitting the wings as he was doing in the previous turn and burns. >
Totally yes! He was a good boy with that!!
Great job!
TracyHi!
He is correct, tunnels and jumps are FUN LOL
>Will probably try in front of contacts and weaves first as he has no association with those at all and then build up to the exciting obstacles.>
Perfect! And you can have him sit with his back to the tunnel and see how that goes (he might think you are nuts though :))
Tracy
Good morning!
Backside slices: he is doing really well finding his backsides! You were doing a good job of trying to release separately from movement so he didn’t think the movement was the release. You can take several steps before the release (you were tending towards 1 or 2 steps, which is why he would sometimes predict the release and move early) and you can also mix in throwing the reward back while you are still moving forward for multiple steps.
There was really only one oopsie, on the first rep on your right – more connection was needed (he took the front of the jump) and you adjusted on the next reps and he did great!
One suggestion: rather than have him come round to the front side of the bump (where the 2nd wing would be) you can either do a FC and reward him closer to the entry barrel, or drop the toy on the landing side of the bump closer to the entry barrel as you move away. That will get him looking at the bump more than at you – having him getting the toy on the far side of the bump was beginning to pull him past the bump – he was not looking at it to go over it (like at 2:00 where he didn’t go over it at all).
Serp with motion:
>and you’ll see on the right he doesn’t have the value for me >
I think that was mechanics, not lack of value: the way you were moving through the lead out was enhancing the toy and not the serp line.
The first reps on your left were really strong – you were placing the toy then showing the serp line starting from the other wing. Ideally, you would place the toy, then start next to him and walk through the serp all the way about the jump starting on the non-toy wing to really show the line. You can have him sit then place the toy, or place the toy then have him sit: but either way, your lead out line should enhance the line by starting at the non-toy wing as you move through it.
On the other side, your lead out lines totally moved to the toy, which draws his attention to it. On the first one, you did something disconnected moving over the bar, so he broke then left. On the others, you were walking to his toy, then back to your position near the center of the bar or exit wing, so it actually drew his focus to the toy more and he went to it. He did better when you stopped moving, but I think if you had a clean line through the serp, he would have a lot more success: starting next to him then walking around to the non-toy wing and through the serp.
>and you can’t hear I don’t think but to get success I had to say touch. >
It is OK to say touch but then he really should touch LOL
>I could have been better on the dog training part for sure but I also don’t want to always have to be perfect bc that’s not real life ?>
You don’t have to be perfect, true! But the setup has to be clean and clear so you don’t get more than 2 failures. In this case, walking slowly through the serp line starting on the non-toy wing will be clean and should be clearer.
Nice work here!
Tracy
Hi! His tail does look longer than his whole body here LOL!
Great job getting the mechanics sorted on this one! It is hard for the humans because we have to be pretty perfect for the pups to figure it out. You were definitely getting the hang of pulling him around then flipping his nose away, so he figured out that it was the turn away you wanted.
One thing that will really help is if you line him up at your side each time, then send him into the wrap, then turn him away for a second wrap. That will make it smoother feeling than when you were starting with him facing you you, and he will also learn to approach the wrap by turning his head rather than coming towards you.
>I think that means anticlockwise is his stronger direction … as previously noted i find the whole left and right thing very mysterious>
I have met auntie lot of agility folks who think in clockwise or anticlockwise, rather than left or right, and that is perfectly fine! The second direction did look stronger but it might have been because it was second. 0so on the next session try anticlockwise first and see how it goes.
Great job here!
Tracy
Hi!
The pool is a big help for the heat, I am glad he enjoyed it!
And yes, it was a good resilience moment to recover from the bin moving unexpectedly. That is exactly why we work resilience games: something weird happens and the puppy bounces right back. You responded with a lot of treats and he worked through it immediately, including wrapping it! I think he was slightly more hesitate wrapping it than wrapping the blue barrel: but by the end of the session, he was wrapping it as smoothly as the blue barrel. Super!!
Even in the heat, you can take a tug break after every couple of wraps to keep him driving more – and then a quick paddle followed by more wraps 🙂
Great job!
Tracy
