Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Welcome to you and Taq and Cricket! I love Taq of course, and I am looking forward to seeing Cricket too! And we can work on all of the skills you mentioned with the weaves & contacts.
>Also going to add 2o2o to my teeter.>
How much does she weigh? 2o2o works best with dogs in the 18-20 lb range and up… a 4on works best for smaller/lighter dogs. We can work on training it all during the summer, I love training the teeter đ
Have fun!
Tracy
Welcome back to CAMP!!! And congrats on all of your success so far this year. So fun!!!
>weâre re-tweaking/training the teeter as sheâs starting to stop too early; all 12 weave poles are just a suggestion; serping a jump is only required if the momma isnât trying to go anywhere else, otherwise we should just run with her. >
All of this is on the agenda for the class đ They are all part of the super independent skills needed to run the crazy courses đ
>On top of this, weâre going to have a go at Team Canada tryouts in Aug, and she will have to jump 16âł, not 12âł. I would appreciate your thoughts on how we should get her used to jumping 16âł.>
Super fun!!!! Have you tried any set point work at 14″? Or some of the jump grids (like the accordion from MaxPup) with the 3rd jump set at 14″? We can definitely look at raising the bars. Do you have a conditioning program for her? That will help a lot too.
Have fun!
TracyWelcome back! Sounds like they are both doing really well – I am looking forward to seeing them!
Tracy
Good morning! Welcome to you and the whole crew, it will be fun!!!
>Heâs very experienced, but I feel like he still lacks a lot of the trained skills we need. Normally, a 9 year old dog should be on cruise control, but I have yet to reach that point with him. >
I think course design has evolved really quickly in the past few years, so the skills required have changed a lot! My 12 year old dog had a ton of skills before he retired… but he would need ahandful more to be successful on today’s course. So that is what we will look at: what skills he has, and what we need to add (and then add them :)) It will be fun!!!!
Tracy
Hello and welcome! I am glad fewer bars are falling – we will keep working on that! And yes, we will be doing stuff with weaves đ throughout the class – in the bigger courses but also in the smaller-space skills work!
Have fun!
TracyHi! I know you are on injured reserve, but I hope you have fun looking at the material and planning for future course running!
Tracy
Got it! I am glad she can eat! Since it sounds like she is struggling to process new environments, I highly recommend using the pattern games to help her with that. They give her a framework to assess environments (especially if she might be concerned about it) and then be able to focus on engaging with you đ
Start them at home so she recognizes them easily – then take them on the road (and use that high value food on the road too). We did some pattern game work in MaxPup 1, so you can refresh it then take it on the road. You can find it here:
Tracy
Good morning!! She did well here!!
>One thing I do notice but it has been getting better is that she doesnât tend to jump it on the slice sometimes sheâll get close to the wing Iâm closest to and jump most straight. >
In this session, she seemed to be really looking at the bar and squaring up to it, then turning to the next line to the reward. This is GOOD because many young dogs just ignore the bar LOL!
For example at :26 and :43, you were in a great position passing the exit wing of the jump with great serp arm and connection. On those reps, she found the bar closer to the exit wing and really sorted out her mechanics and had the in-then-out line. Really nice!!!!!
When you changed sides, at :56 she did the same behavior of looking at the bar but it was a bit more last minute and closer to where you were (I think this is what you were describing). That looked to be because she was like âyay, new side woohoo uh oh better find the barâ LOL!! So there was that little delay, but she still did great.
On the next rep at 1:08, since she knew which side you were going to be on – no delays, she found the bar and line immediately even with you moving faster. And on the last rep, you ran and got way ahead and she was perfection.
>Hopefully that will fix itself once she learns how to maneuver her body better.>
It absolutely will, we are already seeing it in this session. I think it is more of a processing thing of looking at you for info then sorting out her body, all while running. She is doing really well – she is not quite 11 months old, right? Doing super well! It is easy to forget how young these pups are but I am pleased with this session.
>We are still really really struggling with over stimulation in different environments especially outdoors. She canât take a treat from me and keep focus/maintain eye contact which tells me she is nowhere near ready to work with me. >
Thanks for bringing this up! We can brain storm ideas to help her out. About not taking food⌠what types of food are you using? We might go way up in value, such as rotisserie chicken pieces? Or an Egg McMuffin? Yes, one of my dogs was trained when she was young with Egg McMuffins LOL – Elektra, the small dog in the demo videos, was concerned about new environments as she grew up so I went to super high value food. In her case, Egg McMuffins were the winner (and I like them too :). Let me know what foods you were using and what foods you have tried – getting her to eat will help.
Will she play with a toy in those scenarios? It might seem counterintuitive, but a great toy might be the answer to help – tugging or even just letting her carry it.
>She is really scanning the environment. I need to get her out to work more but I was lacking the will to do it since she pulls on leash so much. >
Right – it is a struggle because she needs to go new places, but also a strong dog pulling on leash is not super motivating for us humans! Totally relatable.
Since we want to get her to new places, you can try a harness or something that great reduces the pulling. You can try a regular harness (I have one that clips right behind the dogâs shoulders and they don ât pull at all). And if that doesnât help enough, you can try one of those front-clip harness (the leash clips at the center of her chest). Those are not my favorite because they restrict little front end movement HOWEVER: they donât hurt the dog at all, and they are GREAT for topping pulling so you can get the reinforcement flowing for behavior you want which is very very hard to do when the dog is at the end of the leash pulling. So you can make it easy on yourself and use a helpful harness, which will then make it easier to switch back to a regular leash too.
>Iâll probably go back to just auditing level for Max Pup 3 since I really struggle to find the motivation to train at home by myself and she is wayyyyyyy behind the rest of the class.>
She is probably not as far behind as you think! She picks up the games really quickly (after a session or two, she gets it really nicely). But also, she is not even a year old yet, right? Still totally a puppy so we have PLENTY of time. You can audit and keep me posted and if you feel like things are rolling along nicely, you can bump up to a working spot whenever you like.
The forum for this class closes today but I do want to keep brainstorming about how to get her to eat in other places – so feel free to reach out on Facebook messenger at any time, or by email at agilityuniversity@gmail.com and let me know what is working and what is not working.
Great job here! Keep me posted!
Tracy
Hi!
>I also didnât mention that arousal may have been a teensy bit higher as I did this session soon after arriving home from being away at a trial for 3 days.>
It is entirely possible! The hormones/neurobiology can last for days to weeks, so she might still have a little extra giddy up left from the weekend! But I agree that she was probably not over the top/overaroused… just processing a hard skill with a valuable reward and a teenage brain that doesn’t always support good calm decision making đ
And it is also possible that all of our discussion/planning will be moot because latent learning might just take over, and she will know it beautifully next time LOL!!!
Keep me posted!
Tracy
Good morning!
Yikes, it does sound like the session was a wild ride!!
> I struggled with where to put the toy. Far enough along the line for her to land and safely take a stride
Yes, generally that is the right spot and you can also think of it as putting it where the next jump would be on a traditional serpentine line.
> then pick it up it was way too visible past the jump and she just ran past it to the toy.>
Wheeeeee! In that situation, you can angle the serp jump so the toy is on the right line, your line of motion is on the serp line as if the jump were still âflatâ – but the jump bar is angled towards her so it is a lot easier to go over and harder to go past. It can even be angled as much as 90 degrees to get started.
> Two of the reps where she DID take the jump this way, one of them she totally wiped out sideways picking up the toy as she was so off balance trying to make the lead change happen, and the other one she smashed into the wing and actually broke off two of the jump cups (theyâre old, brittle Max 200 jumps that need the strips replaced any way, but still, *2* jump cups). >
Lordy! She was trying to go fast and get the mechanics and it didnât work out at all. A couple of ideas, in no particular order:
It is possible that using a larger toy like a giant hollee roller will help, because then she wonât have to lower her head as much to scoop it up. Lowering her head is probably pulling her weight forward, making the weight shift/lead changes harder.
>Question is, should I take some of the arousal out and just use a manners minder instead of the toy? Or will she have to learn it all over again once the arousal is added back in any way? That whole âstate dependent learningâ. >
I think you have arrived in the fine balance of yes-state-dependent-learning and yes-adolescence-OMG. In adolescence, the cognitive control of not smashing into jumps/arousal regulation is just not developed, and the âgo fast towards somethingâ is actually over-developed due to adolescent brain changes.
Evolutionarily, it makes sense for the brain to do this⌠but jeeeeez it makes training adolescent dogs harder!
So we walk a tightrope in adolescence, always balancing arousal and âplease donât break yourself in halfâ while teaching stuff or running sequences. So in this case – to maintain the arousal we want/need to really get the behavior where we want it, you can walk the tightrope by playing a little tug before each rep, then putting the toy in your pocket and the MM is the reward target on the ground. That might get you into the âjust rightâ level of arousal to optimize learning without going into overarousal, while helped protect her from hitting things while she learns the mechanics.
For kicks, since you are a medical professional đ I pulled out the âthis is what is happening in adolescent brainsâ slides from a recent webinar. If you feel like there is a LOT going on in her brain right now⌠you are indeed correct LOL
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/14WMhayN4HCeCWoDd4Dh9yKVjRk7mJrDolZMxCSiuo5o/edit?usp=sharing
I read this list over a LOT as a reminder because I have 4 adolescent dogs in the house (and a lot of chocolate to help me survive the insanity LOL!). I spend a lot of time trying to balance their training sessions to work in arousal without them also splatting themselves as they drive into the âworkâ.
>I feel like this is a behavior that similar to running contacts where the skill needed from the dog is completely different depending on the arousal.>
Yes, which is why we want to put arousal into the RDW training as early as possible⌠but we also do it on a mat on the ground or a low board as they learn mechanics. I use the âtug before, MM rewardâ as the height of the DW or AF increases, so there is arousal but the dog maintains good mechanics for safety reasons.
And a nice balance to it is working her in higher arousal with simpler skills, because the neural pathways for arousal regulation in work will also help when doing harder stuff like serps or running contacts – so we donât need to have super high arousal for the skills that require a lot of mechanics, because we can teach her body how to function in super high arousal using simpler (safer) skills.
Let me know what you think!
Tracy
I will keep you posted! I might open it up for folks who are in MaxPup 3 and have the independent study class – I will know in the next few days based on the calendar for the summer đ
Tracy
Hi! This session went GREAT!! Looks like she was perfect with the Go, the left towards you, and the right turn RC. You were very clear with the verbals and connection, which really helped.
She was definitely reading the rear cross pressure too, and I bet you can start it even sooner so you don’t end up as far behind her. You can be a little ahead of her when she exits the tunnel, and be running to the center of the bar of the jump even before she passes you. She will fly by you and do the RC, and you will be closer to her to then cue the next line. That will help her stay out to get the next wing after the jump too! (If she goes to the backside of the jump, it just means you were too early on the RC line and pushed across the jump before she had a chance to get past you :))
Great job here and with all the games – she is looking fantastic! See you in MaxPup 3!!!
Tracy
Good morning!
Hooray for no banana!!! He did great đ You can add more independence by gradually moving further and further away from the line while maintaining the parallel path to the backside.
>Thank you SO much for all your help in this class! I feel like he (and our working relationship) has improved so so much from that first session with so much frustration! And he has some cool new agility skills!>
I agree – you really embraced the play and arousal, leading to incredible leaps forward in teamwork. And he is so much better at regulating arousal – this is easy when things are going well, but he was able to do it even after mistakes and he kept trying without get frustrated. What a good boy!! In MP 3 we will be able to really ramp up his sequence work – it will be so fun!!!
Great job here!
Tracy
