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Good morning!
She did really well finding the jump here on both sides! Super! Good job with the tunnel refresher at the beginning. And these were good distances between the wing-tunnel and tunnel-jump, and she was committing really well.
You can start to add more and more lateral distance away from the jump now. And to keep her from looking at you, you can throw the toy sooner so it lands before she gets to the jump. As soon as she looks at the jump after the tunnel exit, you can throw it. And you can add in a GO verbal as well – starting before she goes into the tunnel to promote a straight line exit, as well as when she exits to promote extension on the jump.
On the RDW foundation – she is getting the idea to hit the target! Yay! I have also seen a lot of leaping when the toy or PT or MM is out past the mat, especially when the handler trying to vary her position (getting ahead or going faster or being behind). One thing that really helped all of these things was to tuck the PT or MM behind a wing, so it was still pretty visible but the pup would have to go behind the wing to get it. That changed the visual enough that it got rid of any leaping and allowed the handlers to move faster 🙂
The other idea is to elevate the target by an inch or two by putting it on something solid like a small piece of wood, so she has to do a 1-2-3-4 footfall pattern across it (and you click on 4, ideally). That also helped get rid of the going past it moments (and the elevated target can go right on the plank when it is time to use it there).
Great job here!
TracyGood morning!
The find the jump game looks good! Breaking it down then building it up looked terrific, he had an easy time with it 🙂
One suggestion: You can throw the reward sooner – as soon as he exits the tunnel and looks at the jump, you can throw the toy. That will get you very connected (so you can see what he is looking at when he exits the tunnel, which is very useful on the reps where you will want him to drive ahead of you) and also it will get him to drive to the jump without looking at you. When he was arriving at the jump and the toy has not been thrown yet, he looks at you and throwing the toy sooner will totally keep him looking forward until after landing.
You can add more distance between the tunnel and the wing/jump now, and you an add more motion and the different positions on the line too!
Super good job getting the moving target going with the set point!! He was great about holding the stay and then getting good form!! You can add another 6 inches between the bumps now – the moving target adds a lot of power so he might need a bit more room before the bumps. If it is too much, we can dial it back.
Great job here!!!
Tracy
Good morning!
The Serps went really well here – you were really good about keeping your feet moving forward and giving the upper body cue! Yay!
You can add more motion (jogging then running) to this like you were starting to do in the 2nd half of the video – as you move past the serp jump, stay a little closer to it. The ideal serp line will be close enough to touch the jump 🙂 If you are further away, it might make it harder to cue her get the jump after it on a serp line. Plus it will help her understand to jump towards pressure on the line which is a very useful serp skill!!
When the jump was more of a backside, you can be a little further away on some reps but also you will want to be nice and close on others, to help her get used to the pressure of the position.
On the wrap balance reps, do a full FC and see if she can stay on the correct side of you and ignore the jump (and see if you can hit and hold the connection needed to cue it)
>>Other than issues of me knowing my right from my left
That’s relatable! When I was adding the left/right cues, I would stop before each rep and double check that I was about to say the correct direction 🙂 It is much easier now but I still spot check myself a lot so I don’t accidentally switch them 🙂
Zig zags – Look at her stay! YAY!!! Very nice! The lead changes were easier to cue when you were stationary and giving her big cues, so keep going with that as the game gets harder.
2 ideas for you on this one:
– Rotate the angles of the wings so that the jump cups are facing each other (picture bars going on them
– Move them closer together – 6 feet apart for now and then if that goes well for a session, get them to be 5 feet apart.Great job!!!
Tracy
Good morning!
>>Actually no he doesn’t have a cue for stay – just “sit” or “side” which is my line up at my side word.>>
Training a stand was really easy. I never asked for a position and just said “stay” even though it was brand new… boom, I had a stand stay. Hooray for lazy training LOL!!
I can see why he would be a little uncomfortable with the line up spot for the RDW homework. Maybe having him find a small target to put his feet on, between the 2 cones or whoever his start point is? That way he gets to do something active (which he loves). And if he is a little sideways? No worries, part of the joy of RDW training is teaching them to self-correct their striding if they are off balance.
First video – your throws here were pretty good, actually! He just wants to leap up and grab them 🙂 You can throw sooner (as soon as he exits the wing wrap, when he looks at the jump, rather than waiting until he gets to the jump. The earlier throws will mean the toy is further ahead, which means he is less likely to try to do any fancy leaps for it.
The placed toy was a good plan and definitely harder – but a good thing to work through!! Getting him to wrap the and go to the jump with the big distraction of the toy out there required more connection from you (which simulates the amount of connection young dogs need in new environments, like trials)and was a great impulse control game for him! He did well even though he had some questions and the placed toy is definitely something to re-visit.
>>retrieve vs extended victory lap vs jumping and pummeling – I tried throwing cookies to trade but there were these little pieces of tree bud and he would eat one cookie and 10 of those so I traded instead. >>
Trading for a treat from your hand is great! Or another toy can work too!
>>Did you say you have a victory lap on cue? I am wondering about that and putting the jumping up on cue too?>>
Yes – for my dogs that love to run with the toy, I put it on cue. That does help diminish the victory lapping! And yes you can put the jumping up on cue too… but anything that is on cue also gets offered sometimes (like barking on cue, victory laps, and jumping up) so be prepared that he will sometimes offer the jumping up. I don’t mind a victory lap on cue or barking on cue because I don’t get pummeled 🙂 but I have not put jumping up on cue for any of my bigs dogs (the smalls jumping into my arms).
At the beginning of the 2nd video, he was being a good boy about trying not to grab for the toy! And he had a very short lap before brining it back. The food has good value for him so he needed
You can count to 3 in your hand before asking for the bring because the noodling around with the toy is part of the reinforcement 🙂 So let him have a few seconds of “woohoo!” with it, then cue the bring. If you have a 2nd hollee roller to throw, that can also get him to bring it faster so there is no moment of ending the game. He likes the food but the dance party with the toy is super fun 🙂
>>I edited out but he got the pattern and wanted to do his wrap and take off without me, as a precursor to touching the collar, I was asking for a hand touch to start us off – clearly he has some collar paranoia bc I got some nice backing up away from me and my hand but we did sits downs spins and eventually he could give a nose touch to start>>
Good job noticing this and NOT pushing the issue. For this game, yes, start with a hand touch instead of the collar grab as we sort out the collar holding. Separately, you can help him pair being held by the collar with the opportunity to move – so it can be collar grab then immediately throw the toy and let him go. And shaping him to put his collar/neck in your hand will help too – he will think it is all his idea to do the collar grab 🙂 We can keep all that separate from the skills games for now and then add it back together when he is not avoiding it anymore.
Great job here!!
TracyGood morning!
I think it is great that you and Paul are training Kishka and Chitlin together!!! So fun! Bummer about the roof leak 🙁
The serps are going well! Looking at the 2nd video first:
You started her on the outside arm (so you were between her and the jump) and you were moving as you did the serp. That is spot on!On the first video, she was between you and the jump, and you were not moving as much – so the mechanics on the 2nd video are more of what we want for the next steps:
– send her on the outside of you and start walking to the manners minder, with your upper body rotated back to her but you feet facing the MM as you walk.And if she continues to do the serp while you walk, you can add jogging when you take it outside! If she runs past the jump when you add motion, you can angle the jump to face her more so you can keep showing motion and she still comes in for the serp.
The Wrap for balance was good too – super use of verbals to help tell her the difference between the serp and the wrap!
>>Yes, we had a bit of a glitch on the second side as she was trying to go between my legs. She likes that and it’s kind of her “go to” thing. >
Yes! She wasn’t sure, so she went to line up position. Adding eye contact/connection as you send will help her know where to be 🙂 And a verbal for the line up cue will help too.
Great job here!!
TracyHi!
This game os all about maintaining connection and not running into the tunnel or falling over 😁. Yes, it teaches the dogs to stay on our side as well especially as we add the crosses. I think you did really well! The next step would be to have the toy more crunched up in your hand, so he doesn’t get it as soon as he gets to you. That way you can keep moving around the curve of the tunnel.
If you have a 2nd tunnel, you can add the advanced game too – but if you do’t have a 2nd tunnel, you can totally use a barrel to replace it and that way you can add the blinds too!
One thing worth pointing out is how well he went from the food throw back to the toy! Getting the toy back was hard so you can present the cookie you are about to throw right after you cue the ‘give’ and then he will let go more easily.
Great job here!
TracyHi!
Super great job here on all the games! Looks like he was very successful AND had fun. YAY!!!!! Having a great stay *really* makes all of this easier – well done teaching him the stay! He seemed very happy to hold the stay as needed!!
>> I never would have thought we could do all of these skills so soon and yet, you advise advancing speed and distance in a few of our critiques. My stomach tightens. Is he really ready?>>
Sometimes we are guessing that the pup is ready… but also that is why I live by the 2-Failure Rule: if pup fails twice in the session (not even in a row – twice, total, for the session) then it is too hard and I dial it back immediately to get success. That, plus using reset reinforcement AND not blaming any handler errors on the pups… we get a whole lot of success!
>>. The only real issues on our 1st rep is ME (my timing, etc), then he’s got it by the 3rd rep and we move on. No drilling, no overtraining.>>
Yes – the hardest part of it all is OUR mechanics LOL!!! But when the rate of success is so high and the pups are getting a lot of reinforcement, they are very happy to let us sort out our mechanics 🙂
Looking at the video:
>>This is first attempt at Find the Jump. I love the way he found it on the left turn rep 1!!
Yes! It was terrific! And the jump was a little offset on the left turn side, so he really had to find it (your motion supported it better on the other reps). You can throw the reward sooner: when he exits the tunnel and looks at the jump, throw the reward so it is visible before he gets ot the jump, and before he looks back at you. You can add a little more of the lateral distance, just make sure that the jump is on the line.
>>SERP went well once I remembered that we did this before and had all the instructions.
Yes – looked strong! It was so lovely to see a BC come right in to the handler rather than staying out on a parallel line! The wraps looked strong too, no questions at all. Next step: the toy goes out on the line so he doesn’t look at you and you don’t need to time the toy delivery… plus it is an added self-control challenge for him!
The minny pinny looked good!
>> I used a toy target for the turn-away reps, is that ok?
Yes, that was perfect, nice work placing the toy to help him understand turning away – that is a HARD skill for a baby pup!! That placed toy jump started the behavior and then it will be easy to fade out, but just moving it around the setup til it is back in your hand 🙂
>>He doesn’t know his verbals L/R. Maybe a few more reps will do the trick>>
It will come with practice of the verbal coming before the motion. My only suggestion is to start him with your hand on his collar and say the verbals a few times before either of you move (same as you did on the serp game). That way the verbal predicts the motion, which will make it more solid (otherwise it is all about the physical cue and motion, which is fine but we are going to want really great verbals with him :))
>> I have a question about the end. Post Turn or FX? And how do I keep him from banging my leg on the FX?>>
Front cross! And presenting the toy with the arm opposite of the arm he exits on (in the same hand as the side he started on), with it across your body, will help him be tight on the new line and not hit you. Presenting the reward with the dog sidearm and coming towards you can result in him hitting your legs as he drives to the toy.
I agree, the lead changes looked great! The stay was sooooo helpful here and he looked balanced in both directions! So…. move the barrels a little closer together to see if you can cue the lead changes sooner, and see if he can do them quicker. A little closer can be maybe 6 inches because puppies are not that coordinated and his body is still growing and we don’t want to over-do it LOL!
>>No drilling, no overtraining>>
Exactly! There is no need for it! And honestly, the session doesn’t even need to be great – the pups learn even if we don’t see it in the session and then cement the learning when they sleep (latent learning). That is why the less-is-more approach works so well for the pups – lots of learning without frustration or stressy stuff 🙂
Great job here!!!!
Tracy
Hi!
> I have to use my right hand to signal my dog to turn left! And vice versa!>>
Do you mean you are saying “right” when you want the dog to turn left, because it is your right hand? That is actually fine and might be easier to remember!
And other options include a ‘towards’ and ‘away’ verbal rather than right or left – totally depends on what feels best for you!
TracyGood morning!
>.Obi is 11 months now!
Baby dog is growing up! Large breed, boy dog – I would say 11 months is a good time to start showing him wrist-height bars. In the next couple of months, go up to elbow height but take your time – the big pups take a little longer to develop.
>>I’m not sure where to get jump bumps, but I can make some out of pvc + pool noodles (DIY ftw!). Already ordered the noodles >>
Pool noodles are perfect!!!! I have also gotten PVC plumbing supplies at Lowes or Home Depot (and the staff there has cut them into 5 foot sections for me).
>>that’s not the reason for my lack of coordination. Lots of things happening at once/quickly and I think I just need to go run circles by myself before involving Obi >The pillbug game is pretty easy for the dogs but I find them super hard for ME! LOL!!! We have to connect to the dog, do handling and not fall over the tunnel. LOL! Wearing a hood probably limited your peripheral vision, so the rain was a factor here too! Darned rain!
Looking at the video: you did GREAT!!! If you hadn’t mentioned that it felt weird, I would not have known – you looked very connected and you did not run into anything LOL! At the end, as you both added more speed, it was a little harder but still went really well! You did well showing him the connections and he got a TON of reinforcement – so he thought it was a fun game 🙂
>>More specifically I see myself hesitating to make sure he is on one side of me and somehow try to observe as he switches over as I make the cross.>>
It looks like you were connecting to be sure of where he would be – and that might have felt like you were hesitation, but it looked like connection and he was reading it beautifully!
You might find it less awkward-feeling if you had a 2nd ‘tunnel’ so you can do the blind between the 2 tunnels. If you don’t have another tunnel, you can use a barrel or jump wing instead. That way you can run more, get the blind in between the 2 obstacles, and not feel as hesitant.

Great job here!!
TracyGood morning! I hope your migraine went away!!!!
The 3 foot spacing challenged her footwork and coordination… and she had no trouble! Good girl! So if you are still indoors, you can add a 4th wing to this 🙂 and also give your cues sooner – it will feel like fast dance moves LOL!!!!
Fingers crossed for nicer weather ahead!!!
Tracy
Good morning! Hopefully the snow isn’t too bad!!!
On the discrimination video:
Yes, the wraps are definitely easier for him! Partially it is value, but also proximity and lack of motion helps 😁
For the tunnels – Motion to the tunnel totally helps! He has too many failures happening though, and was getting frustrated (leaping/grabbing for the toy). So, time to build up the tunnel value & understanding! To do that, you can straighten the tunnel out and have it closer to the wing so it is easier to see and go through. Or take the wing out entirely until he can find that tunnel 100% of the time. And add in a lot of connection – with the curved tunnel, you were disconnecting a bit and moving away, so he was following your body cues and not always going into the tunnel. If something goes awry, no need to mark it as being wrong like at :24 – you can call him back, reset with a cookie, then make it easier on the next rep.>>FAS helping out (she likes that she has her own acronym, by the way).>>
Ha! She is very helpful – holding him but not getting him jazzed up and leaning forward. Yay! He did well here – you probably don’t need both the release work and the chase it marker, because the toy placement and the release implies that he can have the toy (I cannot think of a time when we would drag a toy, let him look at it, release him and NOT want him to take it LOL!!) Because he is not in a stay, the chase it might be technically more correct than a release but either way, you can go with one verbal rather than trying to use both 🙂
He did better when you were walking and not running, so you can revisit this maybe once a week, with you walking for now. As he develops his mechanics, you can add more running – because he is young, his body & mechanics change every day so there is no rush to add more challenge to the game yet.
>>I also moved the bumps a little closer – set them at 4 ft, I think I had them at 5 ft last time.>>
This will continue to change has he grows (not even 7 months old yet?). He will probably end up at a 6 foot set point distance but we have plenty of time to sort that out 🙂
>>we did some find the jump work. This was pretty easy for him, at least the finding the jump part. Still working on tunnel commitment.>>
He was great about finding the jump! Yay! You can throw the reward even sooner: use your marker and throw it as soon as he looks at the jump, which will be basically right after he exits the tunnel. That way he looks forward the whole time and not at you. On most reps, you were throwing as he was arriving at the jump, so he was looking at you.
You can also mix in rewards for taking the tunnel, thrown at the tunnel exit. For now, stretch the tunnel out so there is less curve and more light in it, making it easier to go to and go through 🙂 He committed nicely when you supported with connection and motion to it! When you pulled away too soon (right after the wing wrap) and disconnected like at :31, he followed your motion (good boy!) so be sure to reset with a reward and support more like you did on the next rep.
Great job here!! Fingers crossed for clear weather ahead!!
Tracy
Good morning!
He did really well with the tunnels here! Great job using motion to help him out! He had a little trouble going to the wing wraps after a tunnel rep, so you can do two things to help him out:
– the line ups are looking really good, so you can hold him a little longer so he hears the wrap verbal 3 or 4 times.
– After he hears it a few times, let him go to the wing and use your other arm to present the reward in the gap between the wing and tunnel (rather than move away, which could look similar to movement to the tunnel)Hearing the verbal first then having it be followed by the hand cue will help him predict that the wrap verbal is followed by coming around the wing, so he will anticipate the reward and come around the wing 🙂
Great job making the verbals sound different in the minny pinny! And you were holding him til he heard the verbals a few times which goes a long way to helping him process them. I think the placed reward helped him turn away, which is definitely the harder skill here! When you revisit this game (every few days, or once a week – it doesn’t need to be a daily game) you can fade out the placed reward and replace it with a thrown reward when he turns away.
The more exaggerated handling on the zig zags really helped him! He did super well here!!! So keeping the exaggerated handling, you can move the wings a little closer together 🙂 If they were about 6 feet apart here, you can try moving them to about 5 feet apart and see how he does.
Great job here!
TracyGood morning!
I do think that dogs are brilliant and can learn the same word being used in different contexts. So the Go as a release without meaning acceleration (delivered more quietly) and the Go Go Go on a big line to mean big extension is a possibility and the dogs can figure it out 🙂 but it might be easier to have a separate cue like RUN RUN RUN for the big lines 🙂
T
Good morning!
I am glad you didn’t get too much snow!
This was a good session! On the first rep, she pulled in from her front more than she pushed in off her rear, but she adjusted after than and pushed from the rear on the other reps.
>> After a couple of reps, I moved the bar to 12″. Not sure if I should have done this. Coincidently (?) that’s the only rep where she breaks her stay.>>
I think it was fine, but you can leave it there for now for a few sessions. Did you move it up from 8 inches, or 10 inches? The more gradual approximations are easier for the dogs. The stay break might have been partially the processing of the higher height, and partially that the toy had a big movement and she might have anticipated the release.
>>Your notes had a good reminder not to do too many reps of this. I deleted the last rep where she showed disinterest.>>
Yes, I like to do 5 or fewer reps. This is mentally challenging for the dog (moving target is HARD!) and also the plyometrics of pushing in off the rear is definitely physically hard too! So a couple of reps then letting her go do something else will help keep her from getting depleting or losing interest.
Great job!!
TracyGood morning!
>> But I was most proud of how happy she was! That just made me so excited! She was so dang proud of herself afterward. You should have seen it. It was so cute!>>
I love that! She felt good about it all!!!!
>>After reviewing my video later, I’m a little embarrassed at my poor handling in areas but oh well! >>
There is ZERO to be embarrassed about! Look for the good points and remind yourself of those (like the strong connection even when her speed surprised you). And if there was something you can do differently next time? Note it and practice it. But don’t pick on yourself – the run was incredibly successful!!!
>>For both of my dogs I wanted to make it super clear that they were to jump and immediately come back to me. What a weird way to start but I didn’t want there to be any temptations for that other jump that was super close to the start jump. >>
It is a good one to practice, because it is a trend we are seeing more and more: taking the first jump away from the course then coming back. It started in Europe, now we see it all the time in UKI, and that means we will be seeing it in AKC soon too (although AKC does have a lot of starts from a tunnel, which is fun :))
>> I’m still kicking myself at my poor handling right there where I had to call Kashia off the tunnel and turn right. I’d practice a front and a blind right there and in the moment, I did a sloppy rear which didn’t show Kashia I wanted to turn right so she went towards the tunnel. If I’d done my plan, we could have saved a second or two. It was so sloppy of me! >>
Another way to look at it: you were surprised by her speed but still showed her the line. Next time you can either show it to her sooner or dive into the original plan more aggressively (that is something to practice – going for it without breaking connection).
>>Isn’t it amazing to see how much she likes tunnels now!? Thanks to your class they have so much more value! Yay! Loving the tunnel makes agility SO much easier!
>>But after that, I’ve thought about doing it for Kashia or at the very least, exaggerating my deceleration better.As she gains speed in trials, more deceleration will be useful! You might not need it in practice but it is worthwhile to practice anyway, so that you have it at your fingertips at trials.
>>Granted this is only her second trial competing and she’s only done one course per day. >>
I personally think this is the correct way to begin a young dog’s trial career: one day here and there, and one SUPER FUN class only 🙂 Build it up as something really fun and then slowly add in the other classes.
>> always go into the ring with the mindset you taught me, just run and have fun! No fixing things or putting pressure on any of it.>>
This is a career goal in agility, whether it is at novice level or a big event: focus on your handling and connection, have fun, and everything else falls into place.
>>Just let Kashia run and have fun! I don’t declare NFC because I don’t think she needs that. At least not in Speedstakes. She doesn’t like toys enough to make that worth it for her. >>
I agree – because she won’t be jazzed up by a toy in that environment, it is possible that stopping to ‘reward’ is not actually a reward and could be frustrating or stressful. Getting to run run run? Yes, that might be the best reward 🙂
>>Now I know next time I need to mentally prepare for her to activate the turbos once we get going! Ha ha ha I don’t want her to go flying and leave me in the dust!>>
Yes! On the speedstakes courses, be ready for speed. And take the risk to do the crazy blinds – you have terrific foot speed! And if something goes wrong? NO worries at all, just keep going. And a few NQs would actually be good because she is going to move up to the higher levels pretty quickly and a little more time on the lower levels is a good thing 🙂
Have fun!
Tracy
