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Hi!
He was a really good boy in the trial video! The footing was definitely slippery for him: most of the lines were relatively straight but he had to add in lots of small strides to stay balanaced on the turns.> He got a bit jumpy when we had to stop and go to start the main gamble but settled to complete it.>
The 2 obstacles before it had him qustioning things, so the stopping to walk tipped him over into jumping up.
>I think I will need to give him something specific to do I when I have to stop him to walk to the gamble start. Perhaps a sit or spin then a “with me” as he really doesn’t like stopping if the run is not finished. lol>
He found it confusing to stop and walk – can you run to the gamble start, even if he picks up an extra obstacle or two? That will still be faster than having him stop or sit then walk over to it, plus it will be less frustrating.
>The second run was a Standard and he took an off course jump outside of a pinwheel and in the third run he also took an off course tunnel outside of a pinwheel. I really need to give him his cues earlier and add some directions as I did further on in the third jumpers run. Pinwheels are on my practice list once I can get back outside!!>
Yes – looking at the timing, he was correct on both of these lines. Resist temptation to mark him as wrong, or to stop and fix because we want him to confidently find those big lines.
On the standard run at 1:17, the turn was happening on the spread jump – the spread has a bigger landing point than a regular jump, so the timing of the turn cues would need to begin as he is over the previous jump (verbal and shoulder turn to show the line of motion.
Looking at the jumping run at 2:16 – the turn cues should be starting as he is over 2. When he was taking 2, the cues were all forward so he took 3 in extension, and then your line of motion supported the tunnel. Ideally, as he is taking 2, you are starting the cues for the left turn (verbal and motion cues).
I think a brake arm can be super useful in both of these situations too!
>After he came back in and did his weaves he took the wrong side of a jump that was really set in from the weave exit, I needed a stronger name call as he exited. I didn’t want to distract him while he was weaving as he is still getting his footwork figured out, but I was late. >
That was a hard line! A bit of rotation can pull him in too.
>His contacts were great all day! Very happy with them!>
Yes! Those looked great! Yay!
>I did 2 baseline running videos as you talked about in our zoom and I think he is running pretty fast in trials when I compare in our backyard to a dead toy on the ground and chasing me.>
I agree! It was really good to see! What footing is the trial on this weekend? The matting is hard to compare because he has to balance differently, but dirt or grass are often great for comparing.
Nice work here!
TracyHi! Really strong session here!! She was super fast 🙂 The turns are looking good, and she also did well with the ‘GO’ reps too! Throwing the reward early on the Go reps (when she was still in the tunnel) was great for getting her to really accelerate forward!
Adding the wrap after it was good too – she almost didn’t go to the wing at :49 (it was hard to tell if you were too early on the rotation, or if she was unsure because she needed more connection or expected a reward?) but then she committed perfectly on the next rep!
The soft left and right turns looked really strong too! The right turns looked consistently tight each time. On the left turns, I think she was not sure if she should go around the wing or the tree LOL!! But both are fine there 🙂
Her only question seemed to be on the race track around the wings to the right… she seemed a bit ‘sticky’ to you. She might just need more exposure to the race track concept. You looked connected and your line of motion was good, so you can try it again in a couple of days and see if she powers through it more.
Great job here!
TracyGood morning!
This was a really lovely session, he was a super good boy – ignoring kids playing behind him, holding his stay really well with the toy moving, releasing and driving to the moving target. Yay! He was intense in a perfect way 🙂 And at the beginning, I love how when you let the toy go his first response was to lift it back up to you to keep playing.You can work on the set point a bit now – this moving target game will get added to it. He was putting himself into a down here in front of hte jump – a sit will be more ideal for the set point, so you can add throwing the reward back to him to help keep him upright in the sit.
If he insists on being in a down, that is cool, we don’t want to fight with him about it because for many dogs, the down is their way of self-regulating. So you can move him a little further back from the jump so he has more room to get up from the down.
>I tried again today with rotisserie chicken! He still struggled a little with trading for that but he was more willing to drop it when I gave it back sometimes!>
I looks like he ate the chicken here, which is good. You can do tug-chicken-more tug because that will bump up the value of the chicken and make the toy release mroe fun too. I agree that he seemed to really like getting the toy back as a reward for releasing it – keeping things surprising like that will increase his motivation for letting go of the toy.
Great job here!
TracyHi! Good plans and good training here!!
As I was watching, I was going to suggest a ‘next step’ in the training, but then you did it so I don’t have to suggest it LOL!! Yay!For the straight (neece) exits, the physical cues and reward placement were really good and he did super well. Be sure to add the wing wrap before that one too (I don’t think you had the wing wrap before it?) so he gets used to driving straight even when you are not ahead of him.
>You will see when I say the word tunnel he has no idea what to do.>
Do you mean for the natural curve exits? I thought he was a good boy! He didn’t automatically assume it was a release at first, but then he figured it out and his exits were good.
Nice job here with using the reward as a bit of a lure at first (dragging it) then delaying it to fade the lure and reward the turn. I was going to suggest a ‘moving target’ style of reward but you are already doing it LOL!!
>Also for teaching tight turns out of the tunnel I’m going to teach a foot target to a prop. I want to make sure I get super tight turns with him. >
Targets are great for enhancing exactly where we want them to go. I think the foot target hits here were incidental: his head was way up looking up at you, and when you were not right next to him (like on the last one) he only kinda sorta hit it (left feet but not right feet). We don’t want you to have to be at the foot target with him, and we want his head down more – so changing the placement of the reward can really help jump start that.
Since he is looking up at you and tracking the cookie throws, you can shift the reward to have it directly on or just after the foot target. That way he turns super tight and doesn’t look up at your hands/face. It can be placed or tossed at first, or you can have a MM tucked in there too. And then you can go to the dragging reward – did I tell you about the squirrel carcass on a rope with a small crunchy bottle inside of it that I bought at 1TDC? Spotlight would love it, and I might gift it to him because I bought it for the whippets who both thought is was DULL. WHAT IS WRONG WITH THEM? LOL!! But I digress: we want to focus on his head staying lower and hitting the foot target without you having to be right there.
When you are feeling he has a pretty good grasp of the different cues (physical cues help too) – we will want to have more jumps out there and also the foot target, so you can do more variations in one session. That way he learns the cues are from you, not from the context. What I mean by that is: of there is only one jump and it is straight ahead… then he would always go straight. So you can have a jump straight, a jump on the gentle left or right exit, and the foot target all visible in the same session. And he discriminates where to go based on your cues. Let me know if that makes sense.
You can start this with only 2 options (and the incorrect option being further away) to set up success. But he is really smart so I bet you will be able to have a variety of options visible and he will do great!
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Hi!
>I think the other change I probably didn’t take into account is I added a bar behind whereas up to now I have just used 2 regulators>
Ah yes, that would make a difference! He was definitely thinking about form in a good way! I like that he was able to be fast and powerful while still thinking about his hind end.
Tracy
Hi1
>so obvious.yes she starts offering different behaviours after a couple of reps unless go do something else and come back. I think it is because she is unsure and starts to think too much and starts to think she is wrong also weaving is hard. I have opened up and this allows me to move around more ie different angles so this makes different I think in her head. >
It might be that repeating the same thing, even if she gets a reward, might make her think you want a different behavior. It is too easy! So changing your position is great! You can also add a wing or cone to wrap before the poles, so you can change angles and add speed – you want to add speed to the poles asap because she will need to learn to love collection for the entry 🙂
Keep me posted!! I wanted to train weaves today but we are having driving rain all day 🙁
Tracy
Hi!
>>>Amateur massages are great! Have you ever done skin-rolling? That is what the real massage people have me do with mine as part of their warm up and cool down.
I have not heard of that so I googled it! Very cool! I tried it and Frankie looooooved it! Thank for the info!!!>Skin rolling is great for loosening the fascia or something like that! I ran a bunch of my dogs this weekend: they were all ‘loose’ when I did the skin rolling, except for little Elektra who felt ‘crunchy’ – tight fascia and probably trigger points. I just kept doing skin rolling and active stretching til I didn’t feel anymore crunchiness and she ran great.
I did take a class in canine massage but I am particularly terrible at it 🙂 so I stick to the skin rolling and stuff that is easy. But I do highly recommend everyone take a class on it at some point – it was an in-person 3 hour thing and well worth it.
Have fun!
TracyHi!
>I’m going to ask my neighbor if I can do a few sessions in her yard too. She hasn’t been there yet so it will be a new location and I can walk the poles over.>
Great idea!!!
> I am trying to teach myself to find the sweet spot of where I need to lead out to so I can be ahead & show her the line. I think this is going to be Bazinga-cruicial!>
I think that it will also get easier as she gets more experienced – Frankie did not seem to have the same questions if you were not in the perfect spot 🙂
>I am super thankful that she is so great at holding her stay. I’m going to remember to keep reinforcing it & keeping it fun!>
Yay! Rewarding lots of stays will definitely help keep the joy in them.
>>Ok, so I need to turn this into a “tug-it” game & play for a bit and then ask her to sit or give me a paw or spin (if she can) and then the “tug-it” game starts again to help her transition between arousal levels? Is it ok to use treats in the beginning when I ask her for the calmer behaviors? She’s my first tug dog so I am a noob and did not train this in an orderly fashion!>
I htink you are training it in an orderly fashion! But every dog is different. One other thing you can try is getting her ramped up then right before going into the ring… a pattern game. That might be the sweet spot for getting her really engaged without any tooth hugs. Playing with it will help you develop the perfect ‘recipe’ but it will change in the next months/year as she gains more experience.
>Owensboro, Kentucky for the conformation & obedience and Evansville, Indiana for agility. I’ll post lots of pics & videos!
That sounds so fun – I can picture all of the adorable BT items to buy too – breed specialties are shopping bonanzas LOL!
Have fun!
TracyHi!
> ie early enough (I know, I had one job!). And do you use a left cue plus a wrap cue or just the wrap cue when you want them to come out of the tunnel and wrap the jump? or both? Ditto, the “go” cue if the jump is straight ahead but they then wrap it?>
There are a lot of words on this game LOL!!
For example, if you want her to turn right when she exits the tunnel then wrap the wing: the ‘right’ physical and verbal cues should happen before she enters the tunnel, probably when she is still a meter from the entry. Then the wrap cues start as she is exiting the tunnel (because they apply to the wing). SWo bothy cues happen, but at differnt points in time. Or for the race tracks: if you want her to turn left when she exits the tunnel, you would do the left verbal and physical cue (shoulder turn) when she is still a meter or so before entering the tunnel. Then when she exits, another left cue for the left turn on the wing. So many words LOL!!
Looking at the video:
Physical go cues were good! She read them really well and accelerated straight when she exited the tunnel. SUPER!! The Go verbals can come a lot sooner (you were saying go after she was in the tunnel). You can say go when she is still a meter or so away from going into the tunnel, so she hears it and sees the acceleration before she enters. At 1:02 you gave the ‘go’ verbal just as she was entering the tunnel, and the last rep was the best: you can the go verbal when she was a couple of meters before entering the tunnel. Yay!For the turn cues onthe tunnel (like the right cue at :43) – as she was entering the tunnel, you were running foward and didn’t say the turn cue, so at :44 she exited straight then turned after she exited, making for a slightly wide turn.
The ‘race track’ right turns on the wings looked and sounded good!
At :53, you gave the ‘left’ cues sooner (just as she was arriving at the tunnel) so it looks like she exited a lot tighter. Yay!
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Hi! This went really well!
Question: what was the distance between the regulator and the bump? We might want to expand it a little bit. He might need more room to fit his stride in as he gets organized with all his power.
On reps 1, 2, 3 – he can be a little bit further from the regulator (less than the width of a hand more), but his back feet ticked the bump on those. And he had trouble sorting his hind end over jump 2 – subtle shifts in which foot went where. His front end looked good, so I am thinking his hind end did not have quite enough room to sort and push off: so the bump ticks were him trying to shorten up. He sorted it out nicely on the last rep!
Since we want powerful hind end use here, let’s try giving him a bit more room and see what happens. We can experiment to find the sweet spot: maybe add 1/3rd of a meter?
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning! Hooray for great weather, finally!
> the first 2 reps he was grabbing for the toy>
I think there was a bit of confusion for sure – you were rotating too soon so he was driving into you. At :03 and :13 you started rotating and running a bit sideways, which also brought the toy hand across in front of you, so his focus was drawn to your hands.
Compare to :09, :18 and the reps after that – you faced forward as you decelerated and he was able to commit to the wing. Then you rotated and he had no questions (and didn’t look at the toy at all). Super!!!
> The Big Lug can wrap himself pretty tight around those wings>
Yes! He might be a big dude… but he has a lot of power and I know he will be able to set up great turns!
As you play these games, I think you can decelerate sooner as long as you keep facing forward and don’t rotate til you see him locked onto the wing. And definitely don’t rotate and run sideways towards the wing 🙂 Once you have rotated, you should run back to the tunnel.
One other thing to remember (so many things to remember with young dogs :)) is to plan and use your markers – I couldn’t really hear them here but also, the toy-from-hand marker becomes very important as we start running more with the toy in our hands. Clarity of markers will help him not look at the toy at all, even when your cues are not perfect (it is too hard to be perfect in agility!)
Great job here!
TracyGood morning!
Stay looks great! And he is focusing directly on the toy and driving to it when released. SUPER!!! This gets applied to the set point, after he has seen the set point with a stationary reward a couple of times.
Because the transition from toy reward back to the game is important, we can sort out ways to smooth out that process:
>He was unwilling to trade for a cookie but I did use one to line him up!>
Yay for the line up cookie! For the trade cookie:
What type of cookie were you using? We definitely want to be able to get the toy back without the collar holding (because that can create over-arousal/frustration) and we also want to make releasing the toy very rewarding for him! So for getting the toy back, use a really high value (human-grade) treat. Many toy-driven dogs will trade anything for a piece of rotisserie chicken LOL!
Then, more importantly – give him the toy back. Don’t make getting the toy back all about the toy being removed in favor of doing the next thing. Gripping the toy rather than ‘outing’ it often gets built up because we take the toy back and there is no reward. Instead, we remove the toy (which is actually a negative punisher) – and even though we are going to do another rep, the stay is not intrinsically rewarding yet that it can be used as the next step after getting the toy back.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Good morning! Welcome!! She is so cute and fun! These games are going well.
She was very happy to do her wing wraps at the beginning of the first video. Super!! My only suggestion on these to help solidify the verbals is to line her up at your side then gently hold her collar… then let her hear you say the verbal 4 or 5 times before you let her go. I think she was relying on you stepping to the wing, which is why she was not as smooth on the last couple of when you didn’t step to the wing. Letting her hear the verbal then letting go of the collar should help her propel herself to the wing even more, while attaching the verbals nicely too.
I think the set point is also off to a great start. She has a lovely stay which really helps! We will want to add the moving target to this, so be sure to re-visit that pre-game too.
>Here is the set point – I used 4.5 feet but maybe I should have stuck with 4.>
How tall is she? I think the distance was good here – you can start her a couple of inches closer to the bar, so she powers in off her hind end more (and reaches forward with her front less – the further she is, the harder it is for her to really push from the rear). Try getting her front feet to be about 6 inches from the first bump and see how she does with that.
It was hard to see exactly where the reward was, but her head was lower on the 2nd and 3rd reps which made for better form than the 1st rep, where her head was high. So definitely keep it lower. And you can also move it further from the 2nd jump, so it is 12 feet away or so – that way she can stride out to it which will make it easier to raise the height of the bar.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Good morning! These are looking good!
The wrap versus tunnel went really well! One small suggestion to further solidify the verbals: face forward to the wing on both cues and try not to move at all 🙂 One the wraps, you were already pretty rotated and that physical cue might tip her off as to which it is, making the verbals less relevant. So try to be in the exact same position (belly button facing the wing) for both tunnel and wrap verbals – that can be a good challenger for her! And it looks like she is also ready for the advanced level, where you put things in flow, like tunnel-wrap and even tunnel-tunnel, wrap with you basically showing as few physical cues as possible.
Tunnel exits:
> I don’t feel she knows the turn well so I decided to not do the wrap and just reward where she should go. Is that ok?>
That is fine if you are working to make the turns more solid! The wrap will be the easy part 🙂
Small detail: Try not to lift her up when you are holding her collar (or let her lift herself up) – sometimes they fall on their heads when they start with their front feet in the air. Keep your hand low so her feet stay on the ground as she shifts her weight back to get ready to go.
Timing of the GO verbal heading to the wing was good but at :08 be sure to connect – if she dosn’t see connection, you will get zig zag lines/refusals because the connection supports the line you want.
Sending to the tunnel from further away so you are ahead more easily really helps – you were further ahead at :30 and that helped but definitely emphasize connection too like you did at :50, where you were ahead AND connected. That one looked great!
>Tunnel exits: since throwing now makes me anxious I did place the toy down for the go. >
That is a good toy for throwing, she is not splatting herself for it because it is big. Also, instead of dropping it, you can also drag it like a moving target which also allows you to control the decel a bit (this will work on the turns better than on the Go lines).
For the placed toy – she naturally curls to her right back towards you on this so having the placed toy closer will solidify the ‘go’ on the tunnel exit even more. It was a little far away so the visual did not override her interest in looking for you on the exit – it worked on the 2nd rep when she knew it was there, but having it closer on the first rep will be perfect!
Turns on the exit: almost all of your verbals were on time. Yay! I think the only one that can be earlier was the left verbal at 1:06 (her head was already in the tunnel).
With all of the verbals- match the physical cues to them, so she can hear and see the cues. You were tending to run forward while you were saying the verbals, so she was turning more after she exited. Saying the verbal then letting her see the physical cue too (shoulder turn is all she needs) before she enters should be perfect!
Great job here!
Tracy
