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Good morning! So fun to finally get to see him!!!
>>So I thought I had a sensitive pup, but turns out the pressure was from Prism hanging nearby, not me.>>
Good observation! There is no need for a baby puppy to have another dog nearby watching/staring… that is a lot of pressure. My adult dogs don’t hang out or run around and watch my puppies train, it just causes the puppy to have to split their attention too much.
>> The next thing I realized is that he is so ready for this! Wow! I had no idea he was saving up everything he has been watching! >>
He did great, what a good boy!!! And because he is so young, our goal is lots of rewarding of tiny pieces and concepts. He will progress more slowly through the games than the other pups here who might be in the 10, 11, 12 month old range – they will end up seeing bars move up a little, doing longer duration work, etc, but that is not the goal with him. The goal for now is all concept work and play and engagement so you can break things down more. Then when he is older, it will be soooo easy to put i all together 🙂
On the video:
The moving target over a jump bump went great! Nice job teaching him the sit!!! And to moving target is getting his head down and focus on the line, which is exactly what we want. The further away the toy is from the bump when you release him, the better he does (and doesn’t touch the bump), so keep having it pretty far past the bump when you release him. And keep rewarding those stays 🙂
The Wind in Your Hair game is going well! You can totally throw the reward sooner, as soon as he looks forward when he exits the wing wrap (you might need a heavier toy so it is easier to throw).
For the next session, add some more distance between the wing and the jump (maybe 3 or 4 more feet) and you can add more motion – start at a fast walk then jog then build to a run! If he starts to look at you when you move more or as the distance increases, you can place the toy on the landing side of the jump (about 10 feet past it) so he doesn’t watch the toy throw happening.
Nice job with the Smiley face game! This is a good game to reward a lot more frequently since he is not even 5 months old yet… duration on little sequences is NOT a goal 🙂 Tons of value and reinforcement and play are the goals, as you add more speed and excitement by adding a little more distance. So as the distance and motion increase, you can reinforce after every 2 or 3 obstacles – that will pinpoint the concept and reward him, rather than potentially have an error or tire out his puppy brain or body 🙂 You will see his speed and commitment really blossom as he sorts out how to use his puppy legs LOL! And this will fluctuate as he grows, so don’t be surprised if on some days he looks different because his legs are suddenly longer 🙂
One thing as you work through the smiley face games: You can add more connection on the tunnel exits here. You can look at him as he exits the tunnel and as you deliver the verbal for the win,g and send to it rather than point forward ahead of him (which breaks the connection and changes the line of your shoulders).
He seems pretty comfortable on your left side. It could be stronger side for you both, but you will still want to look at him to rehearse great connection. He is not as comfortable on your right side and your connection is not as clear – when he exits the tunnel, he looks at you a little at :47 and a lot at :58. So try to have your arm back, pointing to his cute face, and make a bit of eye contact as you move forward to send to the wing. Your hand can travel with his nose 🙂 That should help him lock on the line ahead.
Wing-tunnel proofing went well too! The cues were mainly physical cues, which is fine of course! When using the physical cues, you can turn more obviously to the tunnel so he gets a little bit more support to it for now.
>> But he isn’t terribly fond of collar holds (yet).>>
To get the verbals really solid, we need them to happen before you start moving (they were happening with or after the movement here). So the collar grabs become important (because you can both be stationary while you say the verbal 3 or 4 times) but we want him to LOVE the collar grabs 🙂 So you can try to line him up with a cookie at your side, take his collar, give him another cookie (this will also help make sure he will eat food rewards during training) then say the verbal a few times, then let go of the collar. Definitely don’t move him around by the collar or pull back or lift up, he might not like that but dogs are generally fine with a bit of gentle holding after a line up 🙂
Keep me posted on that beause if he still doesn’t like it, then we can work on it in a different context – happy collar holding is more imporant than verbal directionals for now 🙂
He did well with wraps on the jump, but you will want to use a bump instead of a bar on the ground – if he accidentally rolls the bar, he could hurt a wrist and we don’t want that. Or, no bars or bumps, and just a wing will work perfectly too.
>>We didn’t do set point. Do I hold off for a few weeks, or modify it for age?>>
You can show him the basic framework with 2 jumps and 2 bumps, that is fine! But it is something he really only needs to see perhaps once a week, just a few reps, as a coordination game – it is concept work for now, because all of the distances will change of course as he grows 🙂 For any repetitive motion games (set point, wrapping anything) he really only needs to see that in small doses, once or twice a week for short sessions – the other sessions can all be other types of movements or concepts.
Great job here!
TracyGood morning!
Really nice session here, hooray for good weather and green grass!! But ugh, vertigo sucks, you were amazing here to be able to do this with the vertigo!>>I had to make sure to stay connected after the wrap for him to go over the jump. You will see a few times he went around the jump, because I was not connected to him.>>
yes, the connection is the key element of the wing wrap exit and commitment to the next line. The disconnection was on the first rep and :37, so he correctly did a blind cross. If that happens… reward him any way because he was reading the cues correctly 🙂
Compare to the other reps such as :53 and 1:25 on the other side, these had great connection! And that connection also cues the next jump, so have your rewards ready so you can throw them as soon as he looks at the jump (rather than waiting til he gets to the jump). The early throws will mark & reward the forward focus, which allows him to then drive ahead more and more.
When the vertigo episode clears up, you can add more running but for now, stay at a walk. I bet you can walk and add more distance, which will get even more commitment.
Great job!
TracyGood morning!
>>toy retrieve (not that it is super reliable with him) is paying off in surprising contexts, today he found a dead squirrel deep in the woods and brought it to me to trade for a ton of cookies. I was very proud and throughly disgusted at the same time.>>
Yay!! But also… GROSS 🤮. At least he didn’t eat it LOL!!!
>>He’s got a reliable X (if I say this stay in your place and I’ll give you cookies), so I walk over to where he is to keep him in position.>>
Perfect! Reward markers are so useful!!
For the moving target – he is doing GREAT!! – Holding his stay, focusing on the toy, being a general superstar. It was a little harder outside but he did figure it out!
The longer toy outside was perfect! He really likes the inside toy so you can tie that toy to another toy so it ends up being 5 or 6 feet long, which makes it easier to drag and you won’t have to bend over at all (which can induce stay breaks).
Outdoors you dragged the toy with your dog-side arm, which helped you rotate less towards him. That is perfect for what is coming next! We add to it in the next games package 🙂
>>I keep bouncing around with my verbals, as I’m trying to teach him “later” in a separate context, but also wanted to engage him at home (hence the “ready”). So it becomes a “stay” “later” “ready” “okay” “get it” word soup. I think it should be just “stay” -> “get it”?>>
I feel your pain about All.The.Words LOL!!! You can use your ready ready motivator word as you play with him before you do anything else. Then a sit/stay cue. He probably doesn’t need another ready after that (he was VERY motivated here) and your release can either be your stay release or a reward marker.
You don’t need both the stay release and reward marker, because in this context both are a release. If I say “get it”, the dog is allowed to release from his stay to get the thing. If I say the general release while I am dragging the toy as the focal point, especially if the dog is focusing on it: the general release is also a reward marker, in the context. I would never drag a toy, get the dog to focus on it, release them, then NOT want them to get the toy (that seems rude LOL!! And also confusing to the dog about whether I want looking at the line or not).
The smiley face game looked great! Your connection was lovely and great job with your verbals!!
He is committing to the wings and tunnels really nicely too. You can move the wings another 3 feet or so from the tunnel, which can extend commitment and also you can start your FC earlier: as he is passing you and looking at the wing, you can start the FC and reward him for maintaining commitment to the wing!
>>Don’t have a left/right verbal yet, so we’ll go back to MaxPup1 to refresh + get those in. (we did the minny-pinny, but no words :D)>>
I think it will be incredibly easy for him to figure those out! You can do one Minny Pinny session to show him the verbals then add them into the smiley face game 🙂
After each reward, he wanted to jump up and pummel you a bit as you praised him. It was almost like he didn’t know how to celebrate 🙂 you can help him direct that energy by maybe pulling out a toy and drag it around for him to chase, or throw a toy, or scatter a bunch of treats for him to snuffle up as you praise him. This will help with arousal regulation between reps and give him something to do other than pummel you 🙂
Great job here!!
Tracy
Good morning!
>>I do think her lack of free running has created a lot of zest for training.>>
This is entirely possible! She has a great physical and mental outlet when she trains. Plus, she is a really cool smart, motivated pup so I think the zest for training will be there no matter what!
The 2 set point videos are looking good! I love the line up routine you have with her – it looks very clear to her and it also looks like she likes it 🙂 And the rug might indeed help with the stay and that is perfectly fine 🙂 She did well moving into the set point here! The MM is a little close so she was slowing down over the 2nd jump to get to it – that is fine for now and as soon as you have more room outdoors, you can put the MM another 10 or 12 feet away from jump 2. I am excited to see her work the grids because whippets have different movement through the grids and over jumps than other breeds (and also different from lurchers!) . Based on that, I am betting the distance between the 2 jumps will be a little bigger when you are outside – what was the distance here? You can move it out by 6 inches and we will see how it goes.
>>Though Paul and Chitlin are going to try out the Smiley Face, Kishka will need to wait a bit.>>
The smiley face games have a lot of explosive running and turning – when is she cleared to make rapid direction changes? We can change the games for her until she gets clearance. Feel free to show the videos to the vet to see if it is good for Kishka to do.
Great job!!!
TracyGood morning!
Yesterday’s reply has disappeared. Sigh!!! Here it is again, sorry for the delay!
Because he is still about 9 months old, you will want to pause training of the high impact stuff for a few months so his body can catch up to his brain (n terms of growth plates, soft tissue development, brain development). This will all result in better coordination and more power, which is exactly what we want for the box turn. But definitely keep training in flyball because now is the perfect time to do passing games, retrieving over jumps, find the jump games, etc. There is a club called Skidmarkz that creates amazing games for this so if they are doing a seminar in your area, I highly recommend it (and plus they win everything nowadays too haha!)
He thought setting up super close and between the jumps was weird 🙂
His stay looked great and it looks like he focused forward on his target brilliantly!!!! Love it!!! He is doing well with his organization too. You can probably have him a few inches further back from the first bump – I usually have the dog’s front feet approx 6 inches from the first bump. He was using his hind end to move out of the stay really well.
How is your moving target pre-game going? We are going to be adding that here soon, which will change things up for the jumping foundations 🙂
Great job here!
TracyHello and welcome!!! It is crazy that you are working outside in March in Minnesota!! But the Babs is happy 🙂 It looks like spring has arrived here in VA – 70 degree days and flowers blooming. What the heck?!?!?
And I think foundations with a 3 year old dog is really fun: all of the training without any of the adolescent stuff or any of the waiting for complete physical development.
She did well with the set point introduction!! Great job breaking it down then putting it back together. I think the distance is correct for her. She did well with the striding and only started to power down in order to stop at the food bowl. So when using a stationary food bowl, move it maybe another stride or two away so she doesn’t have to slow down as early.
How is your moving target pre-game going? We are going to add that soon, which will change the picture for her (in a good way 😁)
Great job here!!!
Tracy
Welcome back!!! That is great that she is doing really well in her in-person classes! I am not surprised: you did a great job prioritizing her happiness in those situations.
Have fun with the games!!
TracyHi!
>>So I should actually be running ahead of her and hoping she’ll follow by taking the jumps when I just want her to GO ahead? For some reason I thought I should be behind her sending her ahead of me on the GO line so that’s why I wasn’t moving much. >
Now that the lines are easier, you can add in the challenge of getting way ahead so she has to find the Go line from behind you. That is harder than it looks!!
>>I’ve found that I can do sequences well but when I move onto a big course, I forget half the handling and just focus on getting the course done clean without applying any of the fancy handling tricks I learned from practicing sequences. This leads to sloppier handling than I’d like so I’m trying to make these handling tricks second nature so I don’t have to specifically think about each one while running a course.>>
One way to get the handling smoother for a full run is to do your course walk through at a run! Practicing without the dog at a full run can lock the handling in much better than practicing it at a walk. So you would be handling your invisible dog, running hard, connected, verbals, etc. It feels weird but it works great!
>>I tried to exaggerate a decel between the jumps since it doesn’t seem like I do it very naturally and I pulled her off of the second jump. So I haven’t really figured out that sweet spot yet. I didn’t include that rep in the video but it was there.>>
Finding the sweet spot is hard with young dogs! One thing that really helps is getting a lot of rewards thrown out ahead, even if you are handling a turn. That builds commitment which then makes handling a lot easier.
>>How do you teach the dog which way to turn so they don’t spin after landing? I hate those spins. They seem to happen a lot in rear crosses.>>
The verbals help but mainly the traditional rear crosses work well when there is handler pressure to the center of the bar of the RC jump. That gives the dog the info to take the jump and turn away for the RC. With youngsters, I like to drive to the center of the bar until I see them liftoff, so I am not accidentally too early and push them off. And lots of reward out ahead helps too.
I also do a lot of turning away on the flat, so the dogs are very comfy turning away in both directions.
Your makeshift wobble board was perfect! It should be loud and a bit unpredictable, which is exactly what it was. A little help to get her on the board is fine, she will offer it more and more as she realizes she gets treats for it. She was terrific here, getting on it from all angles and slamming it around.
Since she was so confident here, you can put it on even noisier surfaces, or put something under it that can make a noise like a soda can or something (and Liberty totally should get some treats LOL!!)
>>The backing-up exercise did not go as smoothly. I couldn’t get her to offer the behavior. >< She might have been tired and done for the night, but also she might need to start back at the flatwork to get her to offer moving backwards, with the treat dropped a little behind your feet so she goes a bit under you to get it, then when she backs up, you can toss the reward for backing up. I think that is on the video I sent, but if not, let me know and I will send one 🙂 Great job here!! Tracy
Hi!
This was a great session! She is so expressive! She was a little surprised at first but then settled into the game beautifully. She really started to lock in at around :50 when you didn’t change your pace or stop moving at all, and she still got it. GOOD GIRL!!!! Nice snappy sits!In the smaller space, you can work this with more excitement by using a tug toy 🙂 And you can have your arms swinging a bit too, as if jogging.
Outdoors, you can add more of your speed but that is probably better to start with food rewards so it doesn’t become toooo challenging.
Great job here!!!!
TracyHi!
Funny, I was working on rear crosses today too, with my 2 youngsters! And RCs are HARD because they are not a natural cue… it is a trained behavior AND we have to cue it right. My session was similar to yours… sometimes I was too far behind or too far away from the RC line, and I got a wrap. Sometimes I turned my feet and pushed off the line, so didn’t get the jump at all. Sometimes I ran the correct line and got it! And so did the dogs LOL!
So if you are too far ahead and turn your feet before she passes you… she will push off the jump and not take it. That is what happened a 1:01.
Most of her questions, though, were when you ran towards the wrap wing and she thought it was a FC wrap towards you.
For example, when you wanted the right turn RCs (closer to the camera), the beginning reps and then at 1:43 and 1:50, you were running towards the left wrap wing so she turned to her left.
Compare that to the reps at 1:56 and 2:05, where you were not too far ahead and ran with pressure towards the center of the bar on the RC jump, so she read it perfectly. Yay!On the left turn RCs (closer to the house), you had really strong lines to the center of the bar of the RC jumps at :28, :38. 1:29 and she was great!
It is a fine balance of not being too far ahead but not being too far behind, and getting her to drive ahead of the jump while you put pressure on the line to the center of the bar. One thing that will help is if you reward out ahead more – no need to worry about a tight turn or the next line, you can place or throw a reward out ahead. That way she will drive really hard to the jump and it will be easier to get on the RC line.
>>Crossing behind me – I was not looking at her & disconnected>>
No worries! You were excited that she nailed the RC!!
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
OMG~ Totally sounds like gunshots. She didn’t seem bothered by it!This session went really well!!
The backsides looked terrific! You should definitely work those with a wing on the entry side – she will only ever see backsides on wing jumps so giving her the visual of a wing will help get her ready for that (or using a barrel if you don’t have a wing :)) Since she did so well, you can see if she will read the backside cue with you further away, maybe heading more to the center of the bar as you cue it. The straight lines were great!
RC video – you turned your feet before she got past you, which pushed her off the line when you are too far ahead. She read you perfectly on both of those reps 🙂 Definitely rewardable!
On the 2nd RC video: You definitely supported her line better with forward motion, so she got it! Yay! You can go in deeper to the tunnel so you would be not quite as far ahead, and able to move forward to support commitment while also running to the center of the bar, which will give earlier RC cues.
FC video:
>We worked on the FC. We really had difficulty with this and when we tried to put it more together we failed each time.>>
Do you mean the wide turn, like on the first rep? Or was she pulling off the jump? The turn was wide on the first rep because you didn’t show the decel til after she took off. On the 2nd rep, the decel was sooner and the turn was already much tighter 🙂 You can start to decel as soon as she lands from the 1st jump, just keep moving forward to commit her in collection before you rotate into the FC.
>>Trying to put it together tool=k a short turn here.
Sounds like there might be one more video? Let me know if there is one more to watch 🙂
Great job!
TracyHi!
Yes, what you are describing might totally be a heat coming on, or general adolescent brain and hormone changes in general. Plus, she has a lower threshold for frustration like in the video where she broke her stay twice and was about to get frustrated…. But you saved the day by doing little tricks for treats 🙂 Smart!!She did well with the toy here in the video! She might have been mixing up focus forward on the toy with the release, which is what led to that little bit of frustration? Meaning, maybe she thought that looking at the toy *was* the release. So you can add some duration to the focus forward on the toy as she offers it to you (but not obsessing on it LOL!)
The other thing that might be easier is to show her the moving target framework with food, dragging a food target of some sort. She is less likely to have BIG MADZ the food is involved, even if there are errors. So attached a paper bowl to a line and slowly dragging it might be the way to start 🙂 Then as she recognizes this framework, you can change it to the toy being in the picture so she doesn’t have to learn the game with a toy. We will want to get the toy involved pretty quickly though, because she might have a pop rocks moment if she thinks that it is a food-only game and it turns out to be a toy game. It is a fine line with these teenagers!!
Nice work here! Keep me posted on how she is feeling so we can play to keep things moving forward in these crazy adolescent times 🙂
Tracy
Hi! You are off to a strong start!!! His wrapping is looking good – I especially liked his left wraps where he was not hitting the barrel LOL!! I think that noise was him touching the barrel on the right wraps? We can help him learn to not touch if it happens on the next session too.
>>this is supposed to be purely verbal only and I’m doing too much body help?
He needs to understand the physical and verbal cues. On this one, the physical cues were starting before the verbals so it was mainly a physical cue session. He did great! So on the next session: hold his collar, say the verbal 3 or 4 times, then let him go – that will really emphasize the verbal cues by having them come before any movement. And, if you start close to the barrel, you probably won’t need to move at al 🙂
Great job!!!
TracyGood morning!
The set point is going well – her head is definitely in a better position with the toy! The start position on the 2nd rep and beyond seemed to be the sweet spot – the first rep was a little too close and she was very excited about the toy LOL!!
>> Feeling like I should try them closer still.
Leave the distance there for now, so we can see how it percolates. This is something to revisit maybe every 3 or 4 days, so we don’t over-tax her body and so latent learning can kick in.
Wind In Your Hair looked great! She did better with more connection of course – when you were looking at her, she was looking ahead. But when you looked ahead (like at :36) she looked at you – so definitely keep emphasizing the connection.
The other thing to emphasize here is rewarding focus forward, by throwing the toy as soon as she looks ahead (instead of when she gets to the jump). That can help with choosing takeoff points too!
You can change up your position too – instead of being ahead of her, start very very close to the barrel so she drives ahead of you to the jump.
>> She is taking off early here too though. This is me being calm about my amazing fast puppy who jumps ugly.>>
It is definitely not ugly! What you are seeing is the early stages of jump education in an adolescent dog. Our goal is to educate her about how to use her body and also how to read handling, which will al come together into good form! Education plus strengthening plus structure are 3 of the main elements of form, so there is nothing to worry about. She is really young so you are in the early stages of education 🙂 and the real conditioning for jumping hasn’t started yet. No worries!!
Great job here!!
TracyHi!
>>You see in the video that we live right next to a school, so I often time the chaos of school pick up/drop off with his training sessions.>>
That is great – built in distractions!!! Yay!
Wind in your hair game – he is doing really well finding the jump! Your timing was good – it looks like as soon as you saw him look forward, you tossed the reward. Super!! My only suggestion here is to have the reward ready to throw in your hand so he doesn’t watch your hand move to your pocket or watch you holding it up 🙂
He looks ready for the next step here of adding more distance between the cone and the jump! You can alternate starting close to the cone so he drives ahead, and sending to the cone so he finds it from behind you.
Nice work helping him with the cone-tunnel discriminations! After the 2nd rep where you showed him the line with a bit of motion… he figured it out and then he was perfect! You can start the next session seeing if he will be able to get it right on that first rep with maybe a tiny bit of motion. Then you can add in the sequence where he goes tunnel then tunnel again! Then the cone wrap.
Strong start to the set point! Yes, the MM will get a bit more trotting for now but that is fine – we are just showing him the setup. Will he let you lead all the way out to the MM and lean down to tap it? That will help him get his head down to look at it. He was being great about ignoring the school people though!!!
How is your moving target pre-game going? We will be adding that here soon and that is when you will see his real power jumping develop 🙂
Great job!
Tracy
