[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!
This is a good update! I am glad things when so well with Mookie: he is on fire lately!!!
For Alonso – it sounds like it was more of a brain game for you and the courses challenges were not what was causing the trouble! When you structure your work with them, you can build in taking a break before running Alonso, maybe re-walking the course, etc so you attack it fresh! Or you can run him first (and run Mookie when you are more tired :))

> In my defense, I did have little sleep due to highway construction noises 3 nights in a row. They decided to pound pylons until 2:30 am. >

Ugh!!! That sounds annoying! Hopefully they are done with construction and you can get some good sleep 🙂

Thanks for the update!!!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

>I have been resisting sending to #1 with 2 arms because I can’t make that work in my head. I’d have an easier time spinning it.>

The 2 handed release is definitely getting useful on these opening! The spin can delay your movement up the next line… but you can do a backwards send to jump 1! That is exactly how it sounds – you are facing the next line and send him back to get 1. It creates a fantastic turn plus you will already be facing the next line. I use this plenty but it is just strange enough that I don’t teach it a lot LOL!! You will see it in the Super Independent Handling Skills video coming on Monday, as I send to a wing to start an exercise.

>He had a seizure early this morning (only his third in 7 years). >

Oh no 🙁 I am sorry to hear that, you both need 2025 to be kinder to you!!! He might have been a bit sluggish, he did seem slower and not jumping as fluidly as normal, but did work beautifully anyway.

He turned really well out of the tunnel here!

Th backside wrap at :12 was where the bar was down – a big contributor to that was your position. As he was coming to the backside, you were moving towards the exit wing as if it was a slice so he was surprised by the FC line.

When you worked it at :19, your position was spot on for the first rep – you were moving further across the bar on the next 2 reps which was not as strong of a position.

Your FC on the backside was definitely better at :38 but he was still wide , he was almost tossing himself over the bar rather than engaging the rear. So it is something to revisit when he is feeling 100% – and if he still needs help, you can brush up the skill like you did here and add stronger turn cues as he is approaching the entry wing (yes two hands, so incredibly effective even if it feels weird :))

Next pop out: this one really challenges the dog to NOT take any extra tunnels or the weaves! He did great! He is not wrapping as tight in his collection but it could be that he was still feeling a little off, or needs a little brush up on the skill now that he is back in action.

The only thing to add here is to decelerate into your switch cue. He through it was the weaves because of the acceleration and the verbal cue was a little late. So decelerating into the switch and calling him as he is collecting for takeoff will get hi eyes off of the weaves 🙂

Casper did great on the backsides!!! He seemed to have no questions. He was really using his hind end well here. Super!!!

>In the course of one session, I let his sit almost completely deteriorate. <sigh> >

Ha! Maybe you were just fading out the sit, that is next on the list 🙂

But before you fade the sit out: out a bowl down on the exit side of the wing (so he lands and then finishes the wrap to the bowl) so he is looking down to where he goes next and not jumping with his head up looking at you. That bowl to get his head down will really help solidify his form then we can move to the next steps.

>Also, the weaving was brilliant, if I say so myself.>

Yes! He is doing an amazing job with his weaves!

Great job here!!!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

>I tend to try to get him to have some speed going into the frame so he doesn’t struggle to get up it.>

Yes, more momentum helps! And working on a lowered frame to help him organize to get on should help too – there is a lot of impact getting on the a-frame if they are not sure of how to get on, so maybe he is having some self-preservation when he feels he might splat himself? I like self-preservation LOL! Good boy!

>Then yesterday evening he decided he could not possibly open it and even started retrieving it back over the jump. What a goober?
>

Strange! Maybe the value of retrieving it has grown – or is it a little confusion over if he should eat the treats or retrieve them (if he is retrieving the other similar clam toy, he might have generalized it to this lotus ball?) Or maybe the Velcro was too tight to open or too hard so he didn’t want to shove his face in it.

I think the struggles in the video had all to do with the reinforcement – you were throwing it but it was not really a reinforcement because he drove to it less and less, wanting to stick near you.

Looking at the reward on the video: he was not opening it when you threw it, so he was not driving to it either (it was probably more efficient to hang near you and let you get it, because he needed your thumbs LOL) Then started retrieving it – because he needed you to open it. Smart dog 🙂

So don’t change your setup – let’s change the reward to help motivate him to go that far away from you. Since we want to build value with rewards out at a distance (while avoiding the giant lure of something like a Treat N Train), you can also try a kong or toppl with cream cheese or something equally delicious in it. That way you can throw it and he can lick the yummy stuff when he gets there. They are nice and heavy, which makes them easier to throw pretty far.

I bet once the reinforcement works better, then the behavior itself will be easy!!

Let me know what you think and how he does with the different reward.

Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Ah yes! Definitely wear the hat for walk through videos and not the run, it did make it easier.

I think the walk and run matched up really well!!!

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

Nice job starting the threadle wraps! I think he ha the idea when you set the line (like at :08 and :10, that was a clear line set so he easily found the correct side of the wing). When he was going to the ‘front’ side of the wing, it was probably just that you were starting close to the wing and he is an over-achiever, so he was locked onto the front which did not give you much time at all to set the line 🙂 So you can start him from further back and even add a wing wrap before it, which gives you time to set the line like you did on the successful reps.

His commitment on the FC wraps looked awesome!! Nice job sending and doing the FC early! Plus he did great with the race track at the end – he didn’t need any support with your arms there, you can just run with connection.
As he is exiting the wing wraps, be sure to make connection back to him. If he doesn’t see connection, he goes wide, waiting for more info (connection provides the side info). For example, at :24 and :34 you were moving towards the camera and your shoulders were closed forward as you were running. So you did have your head turned back to him, but he couldn’t see it so he was wider there exiting the wing. If you drop your shoulder back or even point your arm back to him, he will be a lot tighter because he can see the connection clearly.

Great job here!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

He is reading the beginning of the BC cue (shoulder turn) really well, plus you are decelerating into it, so he knows it is a tight turn too! Super! His commitment is looking great… so you can start the blinds earlier 🙂 You were starting them when he was about halfway to the wing, which meant the blind was not-quite-finished when he exited the wing. So you can start it one stride sooner: when he exits the tunnel, cue the wing while staying on the same line you ran here. As he looks at the wing (one stride past the tunnel exit) keep moving forward to the wing but also start the side change so the blind is fully finished before he exits the wing.

That is allowing you to set up the FC and spin on the middle wing, which looked great – just be sure that you don’t block his line a you move forward to that wing. That was happening a little on the 2nd side like at :42 and :54 so he was going wide to get around you. Compare to the other side, like at :15, where you cleared the line and let him get past you to the wing – super tight turns!

On the 2nd video:

>I think this is like a “flip” or a “Japanese” >

If my memory is correct, the OMD definition for a Japanese (and maybe flip too) is a BC on the takeoff side of a backside – so the 2nd blind here fit that definition. Maybe the flip was 2 BCs in a row but that would require a lot more coffee to remember hahahaha

But yes – they are really difficult because of the quickness of the connection change.

There are 2 tricks to getting the 2 blinds in a row.

The first is to begin the first blind as easy as possible, so it is finished before he exits the wing.
The other trick is to use connection but not arms – it just takes too long to extend and retract our arms, and they block the connection. I think of my arms as ‘chicken wings’ for this skill, which are bent at the elbow and tucked into my ribs 🙂 That way I can make both connection changes pretty quickly.

Nice timing at :15 – that is what I was suggesting for ideal timing! Yay! You were finished with the blind before he exited the first wing, but your arms were extended which blocked the connection. On this rep, he never quite made the side change on the first side (unclear connection) so he stayed out on the right side and got that line nicely. The rep after that (:21) had early enough timing and clearer connection changes, so he got that quite nicely!

On the other side – the timing of starting the first blind was a bit late (he was one stride from the wing) which made the 2nd blind really late. So starting those cues as he exits the tunnel will make that a lot easier.

And try it with your arms in tight – you will see how much quicker you can get the blinds going!

Great job here!

Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning! The circle wraps went really well – I think they are one of the harder handling moves for human and dog!

The best reps were when you added countermotion, like at :21-:23, 1:04, 1:10 by getting right behind his tail and moving forward, supporting with a bit of connection by not hanging out near the wing at all. Also, those were all right turns.

When you added the left turn at 1:19 and tried to do the same once countermotion, he had a harder time (1:19 and the rep after it). You helped by staying near the wing longer (on the landing side, like at 1:31). You can also get the countermotion going on the left turns by moving through the line more slowly and looking back behind you (looking and pointing to the landing spot) then throwing the reward back behind yo uno the other side of the wing.

On the FC and spin wraps:
Great job decelerating sooner and giving him the wrap cues sooner! The info was flowing as he exited the tunnel so you can see there is more ‘snap’ around the wing on both the FC and the spins, because he was driving through the tight turn (with the info on where to go next already visible).

Great job here!!

Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Here ya go! I think you did really well!

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!

>Question about the target. Do I go to a nose target or would a foot target be better? >

I vote for a head bob! A head bob towards the target accomplishes 3 things:
– it helps get the weight shift we want, for being able to get speed into position, then stop easily, and for exploding out of the position. If their heads are up looking at us and there is a foot target only, they will slow down because it is harder to go fast while looking upwards.
– it adds something to look at as a strong focal point that is NOT us humans. The more they look at us, the more they turn or slow down.
– it adds an extra layer of criteria. As you know, criteria often deteriorates through a trial career, so the more we can add, the better! So having both the foot position and the head bob in play will help the behavior hold up a lot better.

>She is in good position now ready to run forward and I think a foot target would be easier to teach her. >

Not necessarily! The head bob is easy, especially if you reward by putting the treat right on the target. And a bit of weight shift will definitely give her the power to explode when you tell her where to go next.

>Thinking something rectangular that both feet could easily hit…she is small enough an index card might work.>

A index card will probably have her front feet too close together, so if you do a foot target it probably needs to be slightly wider than her shoulders.

>I see a foot target as useful for the teeter maybe too.< yes, it will help her drive to the end. For my small dogs, I use a foot target on the teeter, which also has an additional behavior of either a head bob or a scratch at the target. I have video of the target scratching somewhere, but can't find it. I will keep looking! Keep me posted! Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!
Lift’s class work looked great – she was pumped up and flying!

The backside wrap looked strong, nice job adding the training to the context she will see it in!

The weave layering is also going really well – finding the tunnel as the last obstacle was the hard part. You can load the instructors with the reward to throw, so it lands at the tunnel entry as she is looking at it from the jump. I have also placed the reward right in front of the tunnel entry sometimes, to surprise the dog with the “hey there is my prize” to keep them looking forward 🙂 And sometimes I place it right inside the tunnel entry 🙂

>. In his first turn, he didnt’ drive well to the end of the teeter so in the 2nd turn, I surprised him with part of a meatball for his first teeter which was so fast that his back end slid off and he had to hop it back onto the board – but it was a great effort. We did the line into the teeter again right after that and he was fast and stuck the landing – more meatball!
>

Ha! Surprise rewards like that are VERY motivating (dopamine, anticipation, etc) so definitely keep those surprises coming! Sounds like he did great!

>I’m not sure that I trained a 2 hand arm cue for it, but I’m betting both dogs will figure it out.>

They have both seen the 2-hand move in the MaxPup 1 and 2 classes… but that was a while ago LOL so you can revisit it on the flat for a couple of reps, then I am sure they will remember it.

Nice work here!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

>my proudest achievement is having great running contacts. But I was *meticulous* and did huge amounts of groundwork and prevented mistakes SO HARD.>

Yes! They looked great! And meticulous is the way to go with running dog walks. It totally helps a really hard behavior.

> I don’t know if you remember a famous competitor Ali Roukas-Canova but she had a running contacts video>

Yes! I was living in NJ & NY when she was doing agility, so saw her a lot. She was one of the first Americans with great running dog walks!

>I never needed the regulators before because Emmett in particular you could absolutely see how he’d regulate his own stride to get feet in the yellow specifically between the last two slats.>

Yes – he did a great job setting himself up to his the contact zone! One thing I notice in the videos is that Emmett had really good ‘reach’ on the contact down ramp – extending his front end to then carry his hind end through. That is where a stride regulator can help Reacher to get more reach 🙂 He might be structurally different than Emmett, and also still learning to use his body. The regulators promote a jumping action where his hind end will push him and then to help land and move forward in extension, we will see more front end reach forward. Let me know if that makes sense or if I need more coffee 🙂

Interesting weave experiment! It would not surprise me if the bases were the root of his question – that is something that a lot of small dogs ask questions about.

>But what do you think? Any other experiments I should try? Or how to resolve? >

To get the weave skill to transfer everywhere, I think the best thing to do is a bit of a weave tour: getting him on 6 poles with as many different-looking bases as possible. Painting the bases at home will still be self-limiting because they will look only one way without really transferring to all the different bases. I suggest 6 poles because it is easier on the brain & body while getting the reward in faster.

So trying to get him seeing multiple types of bases in different places is one option!

And also, you can see if folks can lend you a set of 6 different looking bases/poles for a few days here and there. You might notice that my weave poles look pretty awful in the demo videos – it is because I mix and match 3 different sets of bases (2x2s, channels, competition base) with probably 20 different looking weave poles LOL! It does not look pretty but certainly helps transfer the skill to all sorts of different types of weaves.

>For example, he’s never seen guide wires, but should I try that?>

I have personally never used guide wires, because every time I add a training aid, it is another thing to fade out 🙂 And they are hard to fade: most folks continually add them back in because they lose some of the behavior. He might not like them either, as they are very body-restrictive and I am not sure how he will feel about that. Plus, if his question is about the visual of the bases, I don’t know if adding *more* visuals will help him process that or if it will make it harder to process.

So rather than add more stuff, you can revisit the behavior on different bases and you can help him by opening them up a bit (2x2s or channels). That is where borrowing the weaves can help!

And, rather than painting your weave at home (so you don’t have t keep re-painting them for indoor/outdoor LOL), you can focus the processing on the weave behavior by adding mall distractions into the environment – a neutral thing off to the side, for example, just something different in the environment for his brain to process through and focus on the weaves.

Let me know what you think!

Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!
These are good skills to work before heading into a UKI weekend!

Finding the jump:
On the first rep she thought it was crazy LOL!!! But you helped her out with good toy throw and she started to figure it out, and was able to find the jump even when you added distance. You can repeat the verbals a lot more

You can repeat the verbals even more, really blanketing the line with GO GO GO or GO JUMP GO JUMP GO JUMP a zillion times 🙂 The big loud verbal can really help propel her to the line.

>She definitely struggles on soft side. How do I work this out? Keep the wing up and phase it out?>

Most dogs find the soft side entries to be really hard (which is why I left the wing aid in the demo). Question, separately from the layering:

How good is she with the soft side weave entry without the distance challenge? That might be the place to start, just working that element. Then when adding distance and dog walk layering back into it:

Over the course of a bunch of sessions, the bigger wing of the jump can be faded to a wingless upright then faded to maybe a stick-in-the-ground pole then a little flag or something attached to pole 2.

The balance reps to turn on the tunnel exit looked good! And the hard-side weave entry looked great! Not hard at all for her!!!

Great job!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

>Contrast straight, right and wrap out of the tunnel>

This went really well!

On the ‘go straight’ rep, it looks like he exited straight and easily found the jump.

On the weave rep: It looks like he was turning pretty tightly on the tunnel exit on the 2nd rep! It was hard to hear the cue timing before he entered because I think it was Casper there, singing the song of his people LOL!

You can start your weave cue before he exits the tunnel – you can see when he exited at :13 he had a tiny hesitation. He had turned but had not yet gotten the weave cue, so was waiting for more info.

He was totally surprised by the wrap exit! He probably just needs to see that exit more often: You did have good timing on the dig tunnel exit cues with the verbal, decel, and brake hand! You can keep your feet rotated, rather than turn them back to the tunnel, to really emphasize the turn cues.

The other place to play with is the turn at jump 1. Using the dog-side arm to send, he was wide on all 3 reps, facing the weaves then turning on landing after seeing whee you were heading. So it would be interesting to see if using 1 arm (dog-side arm) would be useful to cue the slice line (like towards the weaves) and if using 2 arm on the release will cue the wrap collection before takeoff.

>B) Weave with me running with toy in hand.>

Enzo said it was easy peasy!! Note how he turned to his right on the weave exit, away from the line you ran. That was likely because you were facing the RC line so peripherally he saw the RC pressure.

So a fun challenge for both dogs, using this weave challenge where they run in the opposite direction: cue the difference between when you want them to turn towards the line you ran (left turn here) versus turning away like Enzo did here (right turn line) .

Great job here!

Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

>She hit entrances but did not weave the rest. I rewarded (treat for me).>

Yes, she made a fabulous effort and I think it was worth rewarding. Since these are 2x2s, you can keep the entry angled tight like it was here and open up the 2nd base to make continuing easier.

Even on the rep without the tunnel, weaving at a distance was hard for footwork (she was scrambling her feet a little) so I think you can get more accuracy of staying in the weaves by opening up the 2nd base to make the exit easier.

>I screwed up the second one and only said weave once duh.>

It is really good insight that the verbals support the line so much for her! Good to know!!!

The other thing you can do is move the weaves a little closer so there is still a challenge but also it is not quite as far – that can make it easier to get accuracy along with the speed as you tighten up the poles.

>. She enjoys me tugging on the ball so I tug her back to start. Killing my back…>

My dogs are also ball-fanatics 🙂 so I have done some arts & crafts and attached long strings to the balls – so it is still the ball they love, but I can tug on it without killing my back as much as(or risking getting my fingers caught in their chomps LOL) I can send a photo if you like – it is an old flyball trick 🙂

Looking at the video:
On thing you can teach her is what I call “Anticipation Station” which is basically waiting on the plank until you say the magic target word. That allows you to move to different positions before you ask for the targeting (rather than start next to her) and also builds up a lot of excitement for driving into position. Here is an description/demo:

And since she is watching you so much, you can use a small target to help direct her focus to the correct spot.

Here is a combination of anticipation station and targeting on a plank, with me moving to all sorts of different positions :

The dog here was starting near the end of the board, but you can move further and further up the board to add more challenge too.

>She is not comfortable going ahead of me into position so I am moving my positions to help with that. I think next session I will use mm to help her get out there with me behind her.>

The target is very helpful for that! And I find it easier to use than a MM or toy placed out ahead, for 2 reasons:
We get a better weight shift into the stop with the lower target

It is much, much easier to fade out than a MM 🙂 With the target, I fade it pretty quickly by putting grass over it so it eventually is fully covered. Or, using a fancy target 😂🤣 like a post it note or index card, you can rip it into smaller and small pieces to fade it out pretty quickly.

Nice work here! Let me know what you think!

Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

>yep, all white fuzz must be investigated because it might “taste like chicken”>

Yes! At first I was like, ‘is he stress sniffing?’ Then I realized he was thinking it was a treat LOL!!

>Venture often runs past the frame. I’m hoping you can see what/why he didn’t take it when I ask him to “pounce”.>

I think it is a hard approach at speed and he doesn’t quite know how to organize to hit it without slamming, so he avoids it. When he did get it at speed, you can see he kind of lands on the up contact which might have a lot of slam on his body.

So since this is something that happens frequently enough, you can build up both the value for getting on the frame and the understanding of how to organize by lowering it so it is easier to get on. It looks full height here, so maybe lower it to be 4 feet tall for a bit and see how he feels about that? That can get a nice history going of getting on the frame in flow, then you can add more and more height gradually.

You can also add stride regulators before the a-frame or a hoop to help him organize, but those are really hard to fade out while keeping good results so I want to see if lowering the a-frame then gradually raising it back up will help.

Looking at the class video:

Great hustle on that first line to the blind! He was flying! Your instructor was really spot on with the suggestion to connect to get it.

Looking at the bars:

Bar 1 (:08) – that was because he thought he was supposed to be on your right but then you stopped and he was not sure where to be.

Bar 2 (1:18) – this was after you got the blind (yay!) As you finished the blind, you decelerated so he started to collect. Then you accelerated so he tried to adjust and ended up hitting the bar.

Bar 3 (1:31) –

>I know the wrap closest to the camera looks like it was because he was looking at/distracted by everyone sitting there>

The distraction of the people could have totally been a contributing factor – definitely a distraction! But if you watch it without sound: the cue looked like a rear cross cue (freeze it as he is over the bar at 1:31) – you didn’t decel and then rotated. So when you rotated, you were turned facing the center of the bar, which is a rear cross cue. So the cue added to the distraction could be why he hit the bar trying to adjust. Definitely keep adding the distraction and also for the FC wrap, you can be facing the left-turn wing and decelerating, then as he collected to take off, do a FC and run to the next line.

Great job here!

Tracy

[Author]

Posts