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Good morning!
>>Venture finally got to return to agility class today.
Yay!!! I bet you were both so happy!
>>We played the up/down treat game on my shoes before each turn and I saw improvement in his focus despite having several new people and dogs in class today.>>
Awesome!!! You might also carve out some space to do the back and forth game with cookie tosses, because the movement to chase the cookies is great for arousal levels and also helps process the environment too!
>>2 indoor agility training locations closing – that’s 3 total training locations we’ve lost this year)>>
Whoa, that’s crazy! Why are they closing?
>>Looking at the week one sequences for openings, how would you suggest I alter the layout for my backyard?>>
Yes to both of your ideas of the short tunnel and only using wings where they will fit. You can also use weave poles as jump bars, because they are 3 feet instead of 4 feet (to save space)
>> adjust the spacing?) Try taking 3-4′ off each distance maybe?>>
I think at this stage, it will be better to keep the distances bigger and let him open up and fly. So you can take out a jump. You can pull out a jump from each sequence: jump 4 and 5 in sequence 1, for example, can be merged into one jump and on a line from 3 that is smooth and a front side. Let me know if that makes sense or if you want me to send photos 😀
Tracy
Good morning!!
>>I have Kótaulo in at 20 inches for the upcoming trial>>
That sounds good to me! Anything lower at this point might not register as jumps LOL
>> plan to use Fast / T2B as NFC runs to determine if we try jumpers as NFC or a run. Is that a good plan?>>
Before trying for a real run, you’ll want to try NFC without a visible toy (Empty Hands) a couple of times. Ideally, we don’t do real runs until we hit stages 3 and 4 of the NFC progression and the dog is very comfy with remote reinforcement. Skipping ahead to real runs can cause confusion which we don’t want.
>> having some fun on contacts in Fast/T2B to get trial rewards – depending.>>
Yes! Hard to reward those in AKC because you cannot let go of the toy. Any UKI in your area coming up where you can throw a toy back?
>>My main question is how much do you plan before the trial and how much do you decide in the moment with NFC choices?>>
That’s a great question! Before the trial, I plan what level NFC that I want to do (Empty Hands, for example). And I make sure that the dog sees that successfully in practice. That’s pretty easy in the first levels but the 3rd and 4th steps are harder and definitely need to be practiced.
I plan what I want to do with entry and exit of the ring (also making sure the dog has seen that in practice).And there’s lots of self-talk to remind myself to look at the long term career and not try to move things ahead too fast, even if the dog is doing well or the course seems do-able. Patience with baby dogs is key!
Then yes, I decide what to do next in the moment or after each run. If the dog has questions about anything, I will answer them during the run, even if it means changing my plan in order to help the dog out. For example, Ramen had no questions and was super happy and successful, so I could maintain my plan and move to the Empty Hands step. Larry had some questions so I stayed at the Just Like Home level and didn’t ask for more, which meant abandoning the plan of doing more Empty Hands work. But that’s fine – he ended up super confident and that goes a long way for his future.
So I am always listening to the dog to see if they have any questions. And making sure I keep the dog as successful as I can.
>>It should be a good trial to work our toolbox as it’s a smaller trial.>>
Perfect!!!!
>>PS: I noticed your youtube feed with Taylor and Sabrina Carpenter. It would have been fun to catch their acoustic duet in person. 🙂>>
Omg yes! I would have loved to get tickets!!!! And youtube loves to show me links to concert clips LOL
Keep me posted on how the trial goes!
Tracy
>> I can see him saying you want it you go get it.>>
HA! Noted. No tennis balls LOL!
Thanks for the video – he finished strong! He seemed to have trouble ignoring the ring crew/leash running – that is HARD!! Can you get your classmates to sit in chairs in the ring? He would appreciate the exposure to ring crew during training when you can reward him for ignoring them 🙂
Tracy
Hi!
>>I imagine with the holidays coming up, there might not be quite as much going on, but I hope there’s something. It would be great to get her in a totally new environment, too! She’s been to LUDS and our local club since she was a baby.>>
I will keep you posted if I hear of anything!
>> poor Katniss ran her paw pads off at LUDS at a workshop. >>
Ugh! Ouch!! You can wrap her feet/pads flyball-style to protect them (I always wrap my dogs’ feet on turf). Even experienced dogs can rip their feet up on that type of turf. I am glad she is feeling better!
>>Is it ok if I post 5 minutes of sequences and 5 of the other games later this week, or do these videos I’ve posted above count for “this week” since it’s technically Monday? >>
Yes, it is perfectly ok, don’t worry to much about which day of the week it is 🙂 I just don’t want people over-working their dogs 🙂

>>We took the Volume Dial Game and Pattern Games on the road.>>She did awesome! She was engaged right from the start. The spins are looking good. It took her a moment to get into the backing up, but then she did well too. Nice tugging!
She did well with the pattern game, especially with a super cute Corgi walking by. Yay!My only suggestion is to flip the script: do the pattern games before the volume dial. They regulate arousal and shift attentional states differently, so ideally the pattern games come first (to shift her to a more selective attentional state where she can tune out distractions and begin to regulate arousal) and then the volume dial will take her to a more sustained attentional state (where she doesn’t even see distractions) and the optimal arousal state. Usually volume dial happens just before a run 🙂
>>She was mentally tired from hanging out at the dog club earlier in the day, so I think that affected her performance a bit.>>
Yes, that is a lot of brain work for teenage pups! This is especially true when doing arousal regulation games.
On the video:
She had a harder time doing her spins near the jumps! That is good info. You can work that separately with just 1 jump and insanely high value food (to help draw focus to your hand and not the jump).
Nice job getting forward focus on jump 1!Going around 5 to the backside happened for 2 reasons:
You were late on the FC at 3 (1:13) because you started it after takeoff.
That set a wide line to 4, which set her directly to the backside of 5… and you didn’t give her a turn cue so she was correct. Same rules apply with baby dogs as with adults: keep going if there is an error, no stopping! They are almost always correct so stopping her is confusing and frustrating and we definitely don’t want teenage dog brains to have to deal with that :))At 1:58 you were still late on t he FC, but you gave her a turn cue (after landing of 4, so she almost pulled off 5). Ideally, the earlier FC will help a lot (finished before takeoff, so starting no later than halfway between 2 and 3). And a turn cue of verbal and brake arms between 3 and 4 will help smooth that out.
The ending line looked great, both times!!
Sequence 2: She’s got a great stay!!! NICE!!!
You were almost perfect on 1-2-3 on the first run: once position on 2 to release her, and nice connection there too! She didn’t take 3 at 2:33 because as she was passing you, you broke connection by bringing your left arm forward to the jump. That turned your shoulders away, and you started to step back. The scientific term for that is “twitchy” haha and that pulled her off the jump.You were NOT twitchy at 2:58, held your connection longer and let her pass you and commit to the jump before turning away to 4. Excellent!
This ending on this one was great too!
She read the 1-2 line really well on sequence 3. As she landed from 2 at 3:16, you pointed ahead of her to 3 which broke connection and turned your shoulders to 4 – then you stepped to 4. So she was correct to *not* take 3. As with the previous sequence: don’t fix! Keep going! We don’t want her to get into the habit of coming in front of you and barking in frustration – we want her to keep looking for lines.
Your connection and send was better at 3:21, where you looked at her, used less pointing: and your shoulders and feet were facing 3 until she locked onto it. Super!!!!
She needed a turn cue on 3 to find 4: the big send and motion did indeed support the line she took 🙂 You are in good company – so far everyone has needed a turn cue there LOL!!! So I don’t think she was mentally done, I think she was still in the game and reading you correctly 🙂
>>We did our first AKC FEO debut run this weekend. Super exciting!!! I took about 8 minutes of video to show what we did outside of the ring as well as the run itself. I’m not quite sure how to edit that. >>
Very fun! Just slap it all in here and I can scroll through as needed.
>Next weekend we will be running in NADAC in several classes in Intro. The courses are super short, and training in the ring is highly encouraged. It will be harder to get video inside and outside of the ring since there’s no balcony like at LUDS, but I will do my best.>>
Get someone to follow you like paparazzi 🙂 And NADAC has interesting rules about food near the ring (but I think it can be in a ziplock in your pocket?). Have fun and keep me posted!
Tracy
Hi!
The video looks great! Good job waiting for engagement with the pattern game. At first he might have thought it was just moving back and forth, but then he figured out that engaging with you was the key to getting you to throw the reward.
Doing it on leash went super well – the leash adds more arousal and makes it more realistic 🙂 He did really well.
The up and down pattern looked great! And so did the tricks!! You have a really nice toolbox of tricks 🙂 The rest trick got a little harder as he got more excited, so that is good to know because you can ask for it to find out where he might be, in terms of arousal.
So now take these on the road and do them before runs at home, or in class, and keep track of how he does!
>>I get uncomfortable amping Chip up. When he gets barky the wheels fall off in our in-person agility class. I really think I’ll need to focus on tricks to bring him “down” before we go into the ring – lol.>>
Arousal is indeed uncomfortable for us humans!! But actually, getting the dogs amped up (into higher arousal) is actually important for a bunch of reasons:
– they learn how regulate their arousal
– they learn behaviors in the arousal state they will be in, when on course
– a higher arousal state is shown to actually improve performance!We talk more about this in the zoom tonight 🙂 Arousal is our friend and is necessary (especially because he is going to get more aroused when doing agility, with or without us :))
When he gets barky in class – what happened right before it? Get some video if you can! It might be frustration. Or it might be arousal that he is learning to regulate. You can use your pattern games in that moment to help him regulate then start again! Definitely grab some video if you can so we can figure out why he is getting barky in those moments.
Great job here!
Tracy
Hi!
Scrolling through the video, I have some ideas for you to help get the engagement you were getting in spots more consistently, and at the very start of each session. When he is engaged, he looks great!One of the things that is super important is that we need to be using higher value reinforcement – he liked the ball (or is that the turnip?) and he liked cheese. Tugging on the fuzzy toy was sporadic, and I am not sure about the other food in the first video but that was also sporadic.
So the ball is a winner (but don’t use to too much because we don’t want it to lose value – does he like squeaky balls or fur toys or squeaky toys?) and the cheese too (but don’t overuse it either). Add in insanely high value stuff that he only gets in the training environment: rotisserie chicken, cheddar cheese, smoked salmon, meatballs… human stuff that is moist and stinky and delicious! Sorting out reinforcement that is irresistible is one of the big keys to this. For example, when my Elektra was young and learning the teeter, she would do exactly one rep for her entire breakfast of raw meat. That made an impact and it definitely was like Christmas for her (more on Christmas below :))
That will really help the pattern games too – he is telling us that while he is experienced in pattern games, the reinforcement available is not significant enough to motivate him to ignore an environment he has been in before, such as GetRevd.
Another big key is going to be making each entry into the ring as exciting as Christmas morning for a little kid. What I mean by that is *amazing things happen* but he doesn’t really need to work much for them. And, like with Christmas, it comes and goes VERY quickly!
To goal of this is to get more immediate motivation and engagement, where he comes out of the crate or into the building or into the ring saying “heck yeah, we are doing a thing!” Rather than the extended sniffing before getting going – that can cause some conflict and delays the engagement/motivation build up (see below).
This means that your sessions need to be short short short short short. As in… one rep and be done. There is a definite tendency to get a good rep or run… then ask for it again and then another one. And about 50% of the time or more, you lose him. So to help build up the Christmas feeling – one rep, massive reward, all done! Merry Christmas!
In a seminar or class, ask the instructor to split your turn in half so if it is a 4 minute turn, for example, you do 2 minutes then be done (ideally, it would be 30 seconds and be done!)
Using the Christmas analogy: there are 5 gifts under the tree, but you run in, open one gift, then run out and he takes a break. He is most definitely going to be like “hmmmm, I am interested in opening another gift!” But that will happen on the next turn.
For example: he liked the fast moving 1-2-3 game in the first video. You can do that as the first gift: 1-2-3-treat, 1-2-3 treat…. Then he is done and can go chill out in the car (or in a big crate, that one seemed a little small for proper chilling LOL!)
Or for the pattern game with the target: Have 3 or 4 targets on the ground, so there is movement (which helps him a lot) a la the Super Bowls game. It will be A Christmas gift moment of out of the crate, move quickly to the first target, you put the treat down to start the game (he doesn’t have to engage before starting the game – we have had huge success with the human starting the game as it turns the pressure off the dog). Then he engages, you go to the next target, then so on til you have done the targets…. Then done! Christmas gift unwrapped, time to let Raven have a turn 🙂 while he chills out in the car.
You can take the same approach with a couple of tricks, or throwing the ball once or twice, or a movement game: One Christmas gift, big fun for mind-blowingly high value reinforcement, then outta there. Lots of movement, lots of short sessions, lots of the ‘surprise!’ element which brings about a dopamine release… which brings about a craving to do more… which bring about motivation to be engaged in the ring.
If you do a sequence? Do it once! You don’t even need a stay. Big jackpot surprise reward… then done! And if something goes wrong with the handling (because it sometimes does 😁) keep going as if it didn’t happen and carry on to a jump or tunnel, then big surprise reward… then done.
The hardest part is that you are going to see a shift in his engagement and you will be tempted to do more… resist! LOL!! Remember that we are creating the crave and doing more does not create that.
All of the games or training that you do can have this Christmas present approach, as long as you have super high value rewards. You can ask him before you start each turn what he thinks of the reward: “How are you feeling about cheese right now, Sieger? No? How bout rotisserie chicken? Yes? OK, let’s party!!” I ask my dogs to choose their reinforcement/motivator all the time.
And if you go in to open a specific Christmas gift (like you wanted to do a rep of weaves) but he is like “no thanks, but this tunnel looks awesome” then you can switch gears and do a tunnel as the Christmas present 🙂
What we are looking for is that every time into the ring (or outside it) is surprising in a good way, short and sweet so he is left wanting more, and building up motivation. He will let you know when he is ready for more.
About the sniffing:
Letting him freely sniff in the ring at this point is going to muddy the water a bit and shift the conditioned response to being in the ring to “I sniff here” rather than “Merry Christmas let’s party!”. And once we get a conditioned response, it will take a lot to shift it to where we want it.
By muddy the water… it will be unclear as to when sniffing is fine and when it is going to be interrupted (I was a little unclear on that in the seminar video, where sometimes it was fine, sometimes it was interrupted). And that will lead to conflict when you don’t want the sniffing and try to interrupt it. That will be especially challenging when you go to new places where you don’t have the available time for the free sniffing, or you will want to ask for engagement right away.
For young dogs, I think of free sniffing to be similar to free peeing 🤣😂 If they wander around and pee on thing while I set a course, I am probably setting myself and the dog up for conflict later on when I am like DUDE STOP PEEING ON THINGS or THIS IS NOT THE PLACE WHERE YOU PEE ON THINGS (and peeing on things can be as decompressing as sniffing 😂🤣). And I definitely don’t want him to spend time in the ring peeing on things, or to have his conditioned response to entering the ring to be “this is where we pee”. Now, replace the word “pee” with “sniff” and it will correlate more directly to him 🙂
So how do we accomplish this without adding pressure or stress?
Since sniffing can be decompressing and useful and even a reinforcement/motivator for some dogs, you can use it as directed decompression – a snuffle mat can be perfect for this! You can have it nearby and add it in after he opens a Christmas present. Or, sometimes just go in, let him snuffle the mat, then get out. That is a nice balance without the conflict, plus you can use it in your hierarchy of reinforcement if he really likes it (a lickimat or a bully stick to chew are also terrific for this). We talk more about decompression tonight in the zoom!
Nice work here!
Let me know what you think!Tracy
Hi!
Hi!>> happens indoors as well as outdoors.>>
For now, let’s hold off on trialing, even NFC, til we’ve hashed out what he will play with in the ring and worked the first few remote reinforcement games. Check them out and let me know what you think!
You can also ask people in your class to come into the ring to act as leash runners, judge, ring crew, all the things he will need to get used to seeing. 🙂
Tracy
Hi!
Yes, I feel the pain of the “Don’t Ruin The Baby Dog” pressure LOL!! You did great!
I think he had a great time. And yes, sometimes the course designs are not great for NFC but you still made it fun 🙂For the tugging, keep reminding yourself to give him the full length of the toy – that will let you be more upright and also let him pull back more. I remind myself to slow down too, I think the time pressure of NFC makes me want to go really fast, but that’s not good for mechanics 🙂
>>They play often, but there was a much higher level of zoomies involved. I think it may have been a bit of decompression from the event! >>
Totally agree! Sounds like a big decompression zoom 🙂 and that is great!!
>>BTW – Reacher almost caught another rabbit tonight before it managed to squeeze under the fence gate at the last second. It was quite a chase >>
Ha! He was trying to add to your toy pile LOL!!!
Great job!
TracyHi! Thank you for sending this!
On the first couple of runs: was he able to come back and do anything? He found the situation challenging for sure, so I was curious about whether he could come back.
He definitely settled in on the last couple of runs – good job doing a really short and sweet one to help with that.Yes, it is a very big leap from lotus ball and treats with you in the ring, to nothing here. I thought the start lines looked really good and he did his tricks too! You can do more of those as you move to the line 🙂 and you can also jog to the line, as that will keep things spicy and exciting too!
Leading up to the next trial, we need to take a 2-pronged approach:
– finding a toy that you can bring into the ring. I’ve used a furry lotus ball (never had food in it) tied to another toy, and I’ve also used tennis balls and frisbees in UKI.
– >>long term I do need to start fading the ball to remote reward>>
Yes, that would be a top priority now. He definitely needs to learn how to run full courses without reinforcement in the ring. We start the steps of that this week! Start these very small steps to build up the understanding.
These two things will let you be able to work the NFC progressions, which will make trialing much easier 🙂
Tracy
Good morning!
I figure other folks might want to read this too so I will put our discussions here as well 🙂 We chatted back and forth on Facebook Messenger because that is often the fastest way to discuss things during a trial day 🙂 That option is open to anyone on FB – send a message! And unless I am teaching or sleeping, I am usually not far from my phone on trial days LOL!! so feel free to reach out 🙂
I thought this was a really fantastic debut. During the week before the debut, Kristin worked hard to figure out what would work as a good toy for NFC: mission accomplished LOL!!! That is probably the biggest win of the day: getting him to play tug in public, as a true reinforcement/motivator.
This is my messenger note to her at the end of the day:
He seemed super happy and VERY into the toy, despite the environment being really challenging (I mean, look at all of those tripods LOL!!!) and he was tugging right next to the photographer.
One of the goals is that we see the same performance (or better) as we see in class in terms of speed and comfort level. I believe you have achieved there here! And he did it all with FAR more distractions like the leash runner right there, the ring crew, judge, etc. He did not even look at them.
Give yourself a big high five for making it GREAT for him – all fun, zero frustration, and a great feeling!!!!!
**************
He had a grand time in the ring, and that is our highest priority. Sure, it doesn’t always work out that way but we will try our hardest to make it happen 🙂>>Biggest learning was that the food box was too weird and small for him to find that rewarding. In fact it was more like punishment so we skipped that in the second run. >>
Yes, we thought that because he is so food motivated that he would love it! So I suggested using it, having a helper in there to help place it there so it would not be a distraction…. Reacher said NOPE!!!! It was way too small (tiny! Eek!) and he didn’t know what it was or why he was going in it and who that rando person was. NOTED! So the best thing to do was to abandon it and not use it for the 2nd run.
And the fast and furious chase-da-momma over obstacles/through tunnels on that second run was great, start to finish.
I suggested the sit as a trick in the ring to get a feel for where he was, mentally: could he respond to a cue? He said yes 🙂 But we don’t want to push that into a stay right away, because a start line stay is actually incredibly complex and stressful in that environment (more on that tomorrow night).
>> with essentially the same plan unless you have any additional suggestions.>>
Since it is day 2, and we know he used a lot of mental (and physical) energy yesterday – we don’t know if he will come in PUMPED UP with adrenaline and endorphins… or if he will come in depleted and mentally tired and unable to do it all again.
With that in mind, your first run might be a replica of yesterday’s first run (but without the food box and with more tunnels LOL!!). If he seems really engaged and feeling excited, you can ask for a trick or two in the ring for the tug toy. If he says “nope” then you can just run run run 🙂
And if he says “nope” in run 1? No worries! Depletion is real and baby dogs often cannot do 2 days in a row.
If the first run is brilliant? You might consider either greatly simplifying run 2 by just doing a tunnel or two then getting out, or skipping it entirely. He is sure to be mentally depleted by run 2, and I want you and Reacher to end on a fabulous note.
My mantra with young dogs is “Don’t Be Greedy” 🙂 So keep your eye on the future of his career: if run 1 is great? Definitely do NOT ask for more in run 2, and consider skipping it entirely so his brain can lock in the memory and learning of the amazing run.
Great job here! Keep me posted!
TracyGood morning!
She did really well here!!!Food patterns – she wants to do them fast but she also wants to chew the treats, so I think the tiny bits of goat cheese (I too would work for goat cheese!) or ham or string cheese would be perfect. I suggest using sizes that are big enough to be high value but not so big that she ends up with an upset GI system. The chewing is slowing her down and also then there are crumbs on the ground to sniff for, so any high value food that she doesn’t have to put in her molars and chomp 🙂
>>As you predicted when we took our games on the road she was less interested in toy play. She did not care about running dogs or people.>>
She might not overtly want to run over to the to anything, but her brain definitely cared and had some processing to do – but she did great here too!
With the toy, she was definitely interested but the small toy and you bending over was too much pressure so she didn’t really grab it.When you kneeled and it was stationary in front of her – no interaction. But when you kept it moving side to side, behind your knees, and then tossing it? Winner! She even retrieved the ball for more and did fast tricks to get it. Super!
“You’re going to be on TV soon” cracked me up!
>>I have an idea for our feo to bring her holler roller on a long bitey tail>>
Yes – all of the toys in the trial environment should be tried to a longer toy (fur if possible 🙂 ) – the length of the toy should make it so that the toy reaches the ground easily without you having to end over, and it is easy to swing around. Feel free to tie several toys together to make one mid-blowing toy! The movement and the chase of the toy will make things very exciting, especially if you can run and have her chase it. Test drive a couple of those at home, then keep them away from her so the magical chase toys come out only at trials for her to go wild over 🙂
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
His barking sounds great 😁 this will be a useful trick! For playing with the ball: I think you will get a better grab on it at home and more interest in it at other places if you move it away from him rather than move it towards him. Let him chase it a bit! And you can tie it to a longer toy, so you can drag it on the ground for him to chase. And when it is in his mouth, let hm do all the work of pulling on it – if you pull too hard, it comes out of his mouth and then he loses a bit of interest.But you can also do the Woo trick and the other tricks for treats! It think he will like that too 🙂
I am glad the pattern games are going well!
>>He struggled more this week when training at the agility training field.>
This is normal – the training field has a lot more distractions and pressure! So to get speed right away, try to bring him in and get his tricks or barking, right among the obstacles as you are taking the lash off… then start with a fast fun send to a tunnel and take off running *without* asking for a stay or a 2o2o on the contact. Just get him doing some tricks and barking, then go go go and take off and run so he can chase you. Taking out the stay or complicated handling will help get the speed and confidence – and both will be added back in pretty quickly.
Nice work here!
TracyHi!
The pattern games work best outside the ring before the run (and before the tricks) so she can process the environment before the run. Big chunks of cheese work well in grass (and a little sniffing in that game is actually a good thing :)) or using the up and down game with cookies on your shoes can work really well too 🙂Tracy
Good morning!
He did really well outside the ring, the pattern games looked really good and so did the volume dial!Yes, he had trouble going to the start line but there were. A couple of factors in play. The top 2 factors were that it is a big leap (pun intended :)) from indoors with food in your hand to outdoors without food – too big of a step forward for now until we add a few more skills to his toolbox. We begin those steps tomorrow!
Also, 2 ideas for NFC runs:
– will he play with the toy on the leash, or a toy in your hand? That can smooth the transition from outside the ring to inside the wing, by bringing the fun into the ring at trials. If he won’t like a tug toy, we can use an empty lotus ball attached to a long line. That will both increase his arousal in a good way, and help him transition into the ring.
– if he will play with a toy and you do an NFC run, don’t start with a stay 🙂 That is the most stressful position! Instead, run to a tunnel and send him through a tunnel to get him running. Getting him running and chasing you with a toy will be a big breakthrough moment!Let me know what you think!
Tracy
