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Hi!
Rusty totally caught on to the concept of shifting away! Super!!>From the video, I am guessing that my body is turned too much as I point and throw>
A little bit, but that was only because you were starting next to him so the outside arm cue and throw was causing your feet to rotate. Being next to him was what made him think it was almost a rear cross (he was turning back towards you instead of continuing up the line)
You can change the setup when you are stationary – you should be ahead of him and parallel to the prop rather than next to him. It is kind of a triangle where he is in one spot, you are about 10 feet ahead of him, and the prop is parallel to you about 5 or 6 feet away from you. You can use a stay to get him into that spot (then release then cue the get out or go straight). Or you can toss a cookie back to his start spot to get him to go to it if you don’t want to use a stay.
Using this same ‘triangle’ set up, you can also add your motion: he is in his start spot and you are walking up the line ahead of him. When you release him, you are parallel tp the prop. Sometimes you can use the get out and send him to it (keep moving which will keep your feet pretty straight) or sometimes you can *not* use the get out and reward him for staying on the line to you 🙂
Nice work here!
Tracy
Good morning!
I think he really liked the bigger distance on the rocking horses and chasing you with the toy! Fun fun fun!!!
It is also a good connection challenge for you – you can use exit line arm for him to answer the question he had at :35 when he did not know which side of you to be on. Showing the connection was easier when you were closer to the wing and running, and that rep had you pretty far ahead which is definitely when it is harder to show connection.
Side note: showing the exit line arm to Vibe will also be a good warm up for running Rip at the Invitational even without having to run Rip 🙂
If that type of blooper happens or any blooper, keep going to the next wing then reward so he doesn’t think anything went wrong. Even reset rewards where we stop can indicate that something was wrong because they are so different than the ‘woohoo!’ rewards when things were correct.
>1 step send (at least that was my goal when I started – hopefully I actually did what I planned)>
These looked great! Commitment was spot on so you can start to rotate sooner: aim for just before he arrives at the wing. Then if he can still commit, you can aim for 6 feet before the wing… then halfway to the wing 🙂 As you rotate, keep saying your wrap verbal and looking back at him as those can help support commitment as the motion is going the other direction. Eventually we will add the challenge of you deliberately breaking connection as if doing a blind and seeing if he can maintain connection.
SAP went well!
>trying to control my freaking mouth (letting the Manners Minder do the marking – when it felt like working).>
Ha! Yes, it is hard to be quiet til the MM speaks first but also with dogs, the praise is powerful for them so I am not mad that you praised him a lot in this scenario 🙂 The presence of the MM is part of the marker, even when it is not working 😂 and we don’t want the pups to just obsess on the MM. If it was a different reward we might need the marker to be more prominent before the praise – the MM is such a huge visual draw that it is ok to remind the pups that we are still present haha
He had some questions at the beginning of the session that had to do with your lower body position (feet and hips really forward and squared up to the MM, and a little hidden behind the wing. That made the serp arm hard to show and serp line harder to see (they should be more visible over the center of the bar) so it might have looked like a cue to go around the wing. You can see it more when you were facing the camera in the 2nd part of the session.
I don’t think your position is like that when you run through a serp, but standing still probably felt AWK.WARD. LOL so you can be in a more natural serp position by walking into the position then stopping kind of mid-step and calling him into the serp.
That will get you a little more center on the bar, your feet more ‘split’ and not together, and your hips will face the wing more. All of that opens up the serp visual so he will get it more immediately.
And you can start with the cookie tosses closer to allow him to see the jump more easily for the first few reps. He caught on really quickly and then was zipping in-then-out really well!
He did well with the ‘out’ game! The connection, arm cue, and lower body line all looked really good!
Your motion up the line was really helpful for him – on those reps, it was just a matter of timing/position relative to the exit wing. If you were near the wing and did the out, he found the backside line (it is one of the ways we can cue a really independent backside!) That is what happened at :13, totally rewardable like you did at 2:13.
When you were further ahead and stayed in motion – the front side of the jump was easy to find. Yay! It will be easier as he learns more about front sided versus backside and the associated verbals.
At 1:27 when you stopped moving – your shoulders pointed back to the wing so that is where he went. He is definitely paying attention! Good boy!
For the next session, 2 ideas to add:
– The MM might be making him think that ‘out’ is a send to the MM so… take out the MM and use a thrown reward. Thrown treats are probably easiest for this.
– add in the balance of going straight and NOT cueing the get out. This will be much easier if the MM is not there (I am pretty sure he was going to do to the MM no matter what by the end of the session here :)) so the balance will help him understand to ignore things that are not on his line until you cue them.
Great job here!!! Maybe he will get a little time on the practice jump at the Invitational? Or at least walking around 🙂 I am guessing you are heading closer to the site today? Have a blast, fingers crossed for fantastic courses!
Tracy
Hi!
Backing up onto the purple pads is going well! I think he is truly understanding the concept and backing up really well! And adjusting himself nicely to be straight on the pads with all 4 feet on them. You can add more distance away from you, so he is backing up more and more.
As he grows, you might want to rotate the pad set up 90 degrees so it is wider and easier to get both feet on (it is good for now but he is growing so he will soon be wider than the setup 😂)
Looking at the shpile video:
>love that word btw.>
I am trying to keep it family-friendly 😂 😆
Your pile was magnificent! Love it! Towards the end you were adding in more tugging, so be sure to tug after every 2 or 3 treats – the goal is to keep the arousal super crazy high so he sorts out how to use his feet and balance. It is not really a shaping game as much as it is an arousal game 🙂 so you can do tons of rewards for all the other stuff rather than focusing too much on the cato plank/wobble board stuff.
>>Dublin seems to be having issues with things like my tip board and wobble board all of a sudden. >
It is pretty normal that pups go through periods of sensitivity to sound, motion, etc. A couple of ideas for you on that:
– take the cato plank’s movement out of the shpile game for now. You can shove a bunch of towels under it so it doesn’t really move. The inflatables provide movement challenges and the non-moving cato plank will let you build value for just being on or near it.
– keep arousal high with toys and running around a lot for any of these games: shpile and also introducing movement and sound. The more his arousal state is optimized, the less he will even notice the sound or movement : )
– Separately from the shpile game you can isolate moving things by doing one-hit wonder sessions. What I mean by that is you set up the cato plank or wobble board with a zillion towels under them to minimize movement and minimize sound. Then do exactly ONE rep with a super high value reward. It can be a fistful of treats, or his entire meal in a bowl, or throwing his favorite toy. One rep, then done!
The reasoning behind this is that we can create a super positive response to movement/sound by doing fewer reps for amazing rewards (a cool study was just published that supports this – thanks science! – even though the results of our training have been showing this for year 🙂 ). And one rep keeps arousal high and prevents any overthinking (for both dog and handler). It leaves him wanting more without accidentally sensitizing him in a negative way. The hardest part is for us humans to do one and only one rep. Resist temptation to do ‘just one more’.
>It seemed to happen after we used them in my one in person class. Thinking it is the noise more than motion.>
In the in-person class, a couple of ideas:
– do a one-hit wonder session too of just one rep for a MASSIVE reward, then done! It can be the very last thing he does for example, then he can eat the rest of his treats or run around with his toy. Don’t let the instructor (or yourself) talk you into more than one rep
– Have the wobble board braced (bring a zillion towels with you so it is easy and fast to brace it) so the movement and sound are *very* minimal. Make it soooo easy at first that it seems almost too easy.
– If other pups are also going to slam it around and make noise, set it up so he is not hanging around listening to it. You can ask for him to go first with his one-hit wonder, then after his reward you can take him out of the building so he doesn’t hear the noise up close. Or, he can go last and stay outside the building until it is his turn.
– If you are accidentally in the vicinity of a loud noise (life happens!) you can toss a handful of treats on the ground or throw a fun toy around (or drag it for him to chase). Try to always pair loud noises with amazing things.This will help him not worry at all about sounds as he gets into adolescence and then the teeter will be easy to train 🙂
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
>Heck I need chocolate just to start my taxes >
It is late March, I need chocolate to even think about my taxes at this point LOL
> I got bad news last night and the funding for the work is pushing my start to the beginning of May.>
Ugh that must be so frustrating. Sorry to hear it. At least time will fly by with puppy games!!
>For taking it outside I will really have to weigh those down. Would switching to cones be option or are we wanting to keep with bigger items due to his age and size?>
Switching to cones is totally an option! You will want two of the relatively big traffic cones so they are taller than him. And you can do a quick intro with the cones inside to make sure he recognizes them as things to wrap – the outside they go! I start inside because that way we are only changing one factor (wrapping cones instead of barrels) versus two factors (wrapping cones AND ignoring the great outdoors).
>I have switched his food off of kibble since we had so much trouble with his stomach. I can try some other treats too if you want me to go back and forth with the stay and toss. >
Having throwable treats really helps. My dogs also don’t eat kibble so to use visible treats, I also use Fresh Pet as long as it is very cold so it doesn’t get mushy (that stuff is GROSS but they love it and it sits well in their GI). And chicken breast is also a favorite and easy to see.
You can also use a toy to throw back to reward stays, or a lotus ball to carry the treat and keep it visible. Those will be powerful reinforcements – it takes a little longer to reset for the next rep, but it is worth it because of the value.> He doesn’t seem to be a dog that gets overly excited with a start. His release isn’t terribly explosive lol. >
That is IDEAL for right now. He has a TON of drive for ‘working’ and playing with you… so we want him to really love to stay and not be twitchy or explosive. I prefer that these lovely drivey puppies are a little more chill and thoughtful at this age (it is arousal regulation!).
Then as we build things up and get closer to competition or after the first few competition runs, the speed appears naturally AND we keep their good arousal regulation/ability to ‘think’ while running fast. It is sometimes hard for us to do this (because we worry that the pups will grow up to not be explosive or fast) but the speed is there!
>Should I move on to next steps or toy on ground for him?>
Yes, you totally can move to next steps.
>I think he likes to tug. Later after this I played fetch with new harder toy. He didn’t want to pick it up>
Awwww good boy! Loves to play with his momma, even with an ouchy mouth.
T
Good morning!
REALLY nice backing up here!!! Bandit is using his hind end and balance skills really well, particularly for such a young dog. Yay!
As you saw, he was able to find the teeter plank the best when he started close to it (too far away and he would turn around to get on it) so good job keeping him close enough to be highly accurate. I was also super happy to see that he was happy with the movement and noise. You can very gradually add more distance away from the plank but be sure to maintain the accuracy like you did here. (Side note: this is all a great teeter foundation game 🙂 )He made me laugh when he came bursting into the video on the rocking horse video – so cute! I love his energy.
This session went really well too – his commitment looks great, he seems to really enjoy the added speed of getting to wrap 2 barrels, and your connection was lovely 🙂You can move to the next steps here too:
– add more distance between the barrels, which will also give you room to stand smack dab in the middle of them. Based on how he did here, I bet he can do at least double the distance between the barrels– if he does well with the added distance, then you can move to the advanced level which has more motion and earlier front crosses 🙂
– you can add you wrap verbal too!
– take it outside 🙂 You might need to weight down the barrels so they don’t blow away 😂 and you might need to choose an early morning or evening time to avoid heat – but working outside will help build up the games to add more speed and fun 🙂
>With respect to Copper’s contacts, do you have a contact course that I can use to share videos? Or do you do any sort of virtual training for this type of situation?>
I do have an independent study course for teeters – has a large dog 2o2o track in it and a small dog 4on track as well. It is here: https://agility-u.com/course/au-029-maxpup-obstacle-series-teeters/
I do private lessons online for running contacts (and some folks are working through the teeter and weave independent studies and do privates mixed in to get feedback on progress. Usually what works best is a back-and-forth of videos but we can also do live privates. The privates work better than classes because they can be done at whatever pace works for the dog & handler and are completely individualized for the dog. This is the private lesson info – obstacle skills like running contacts work great in the 30 minute packages, no need to do a full hour lesson 🙂
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScDxgW08hhu0HXCSIVVkiQsNxW1VY0kzXUMYZ1cuscDePr1kQ/viewform?usp=headerGreat job here!
Tracy
Hi!
On these, I think the questions from the dogs were because your feet were what was turning them, and not your hands. You were pulling them in with the outside hand, but then using your feet to turn them away. Ideally, you would pull them in with the outside hand and also turn them away with the outside hand (or both hands). Here’s what I mean:
>On the first jump with wing, she didn’t turn until landing, making the landing look super awkward.>
One those reps, you were using your hand to pull them in at the same time as your feet were moving to the jump, so it looked like a slice cue when she was taking off. Then she saw your feet cross the rear cross line so she adjusted to the new direction.
On Kashia’s runs, the reps at :27 & :45 had good ‘pull in’ and you can use your hands to then also flip her away. Keeping your hands lower and more pointed to her nose will really help – the outside arm was high and I think as you were turning she couldn’t really see it (like at :42) so she was waiting for your feet there (and she was slowing down to be sure).
You can see it at 1:04,1:27, and 1:43 with Kastella – the outside hand pulls her in but then stays out on the other side of you – that hand can pull in and turn away, before your feet turn to the jump.
>then on one rep Kastella still took the wrong side of the jump.>
That was at 1:58, where she correctly followed you feet which stepped her to that side of the jump.
You’ll find these turn aways to be more fluid with lower hands to get her focused on the hands, then while keeping your hands low – turn her away with your hands then follow with your feet.
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Good morning!
They are reading the brake arms really well! I think you can cue more acceleration overall and then sprinkle in the brake arms here and there, depending on how much turn you need.
>Also, I’m proud of myself because I actually noticed my issue with speed before I read your comments. As I was practicing yesterday, I noticed that the more I move my feet, even if in place, the more Kashia (and Kastella, actually) pick up momentum and speed.>
Yes! They both read your motion really well – that is part of why they turn really well when you decelerate. But that also means they are less likely to accelerate if you are decelerated. when you were walking, Kastella was cantering but when you were moving faster, she was galloping 🙂 You were running more with Kashia and so she was running more too.
> You will see I wasn’t doing that at first with Kastella. I was trying to do the drills by just standing around in the middle.>
Ha! Kastella didn’t let you off the hook 🙂 And neither does Kashia – she totally cues off of your motion and the size of your steps. On the last sequence, for example, at 2:11 til about 2:20 you were moving but taking small steps. So Kashia read that as decel and she too took very small steps. When you started taking bigger steps – she read that as acceleration and also took bigger strides, moving faster.
> In my mind, there isn’t much movement needed since it’s a smaller space and a circle. I need to remind myself that the dog reads my body language and will emulate that lack of speed!>
In smaller spaces, you can go closer to the tunnel so they see more acceleration when they exit – if you get too far ahead, there is no place to go and you might end up slowing down. And that can help when you want to use more distance. And you can get closer to the jump wings too to show more acceleration on the sequences where you don’t need as much distance.
>I noticed Kastella was constantly watching and head-checking me.>
Yes – I totally see what you are talking about. Here’s why I think it was happening, along with why the verbals were a little late:
> I also don’t know why my dog side arm is kind of helicopter-ing around. I need to keep that lower so I’m not disconnecting from the dog. So why I was failing to give them the information as soon as I should, is beyond me! Was that why she was head checking? Was I not being clear on what I was asking?.>
This! Your dog-side hand was pointing ahead which was blocking their view of connection, so you can Kastella in particular looking at you to double check the info. You were moving less with her, so she was checking in more. You were moving more with Kashia, so she could cue off the motion and not check in as much.
And because your arm was up high and forward, it was blocking your view of the dogs. That is what was making the verbals a little late: you were not seeing them until they were in your periphery so that is when you gave the cues. But they needed them a little sooner – so having your arm back towards them and lower will open up the connection better for you both.
At 1:27 you’ll see Kashia take the jump rather than the tunnel. Where did I go wrong to send her over that when I actually wanted the tunnel?
I thought I was only one week behind so I was surprised to see you posted week 5 today! Eeek!! I will get 1 lesson of week 4 done today. I go out of town until Saturday but will get the second lesson of week 4 done on the weekend. Again, thanks for having a couple extra weeks into April built into the program so I can get week 5 done without rushing.
Not enough connection (too much arm pointing to the line next to her and not enough motion so she waslike at :28 when you were fully turned and decelerated and pointing
. So why I was failing to give them the information as soon as I should, is beyond me! Was that why she was head checking? Was I not being clear on what I was asking? I also don’t know why my dog side arm is kind of helicopter-ing around. I need to keep that lower so I’m not disconnecting from the dog. I clearly haven’t videoed myself in a while, prior to this class, so I have a few quirks to work out!
>At 1:27 you’ll see Kashia take the jump rather than the tunnel. Where did I go wrong to send her over that when I actually wanted the tunnel?>
She was being a good girl, good job continuing even after the bonus jump 🙂
Watch that section in slow motion: as she was landing from the jump before it (1:25) you were doing a post turn. So when she landed and needed to make a decision about where to go next (1:26) you were completely facing the line to the jump she ended up taking. Then you took a step or two parallel to her line, which really solidified it as the jump. By the time you were fully turned and facing the tunnel (1:27) she was getting ready to take off for the jump so she likely thought it was the jump then the tunnel.
Compare to when she landed from the same jump at 1:33 – you had decelerated more and as she took a step past landing, you were fully turned to face the tunnel (1:34) so she locked onto it at 1:35. Super!
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Good morning!
> I feel least confident about (that would be lap turns – LOL – but I think I’m more likely to want a threadle wrap than a lap turn at the Invitational -hopefully I didnt’ just jinx myself!)>
I would be very surprised if you saw a lap turn on the Invitational courses. They are generally seen in Premier courses more than anything else lately. But yes… expect threadle wraps!
Looking at the video:
> I think the first one went the best and then I started thinking too hard about them.>
You had a lot of really good line setting on these, like at :08, and :39!! What she is needing help with is independently turning back to the jump. She is currently relying on you to cue it, which in turn relies on your timing and position. You can spend more time on the wing-to-jump games and get lots of reward for her turning herself away to it, which will make it easier for you both!
When you also have to turn her to the jump, it messes up the line and creates questions about which side of the jump she needs to take:
Watch :51 to :53 in super slow motion and you will see the cues to take the wrong side of the jump. You set it really well then took one step to it with your right foot and your shoulders turned to it… so off she went to the front side of the jump.
You got it nicely on the next rep by holding onto it for a longer time but that made her mad LOL! Isolating the independence of turning herself away (and throwing the reward back behind you without you turning to the jump) will make it smoother for sure.
For the BC to TW: You can finish the BC sooner (at least a stride before she takes off) so you have time to reconnect and set the line. The reconnection was happening as she was landing at 1:18 and 1:31 which caused your motion to turn towards the jump rather than away from it to set the TW, so she had big questions.
During those moments of question, even if she takes the front side and not the threadle side: don’t differentiate the rewards as lotus ball throws versus cookie drops at this stage. She is cueing off of what she sees, so she is not actually wrong – and a differentiation can be confusing/frustrating because she knows the difference 🙂 and we don’t want to add frustration. For now, until she has a high rate of success and understands more about the independence, you can take the threadle wrap verbal off and just use her name. That way, if you accidentally cue the front side of the jump you can still give the big reward without worrying about potentially diluting the TW verbal.
>I’m one of those weirdos that trained Kaladin’s threadle slice with an opposite arm (crossed across my body and up towards my torso/shoulder) and it works well for him. Lift doesnt’ have a good threadle slice yet so I’m open to doing something different for her assuming I can keep the different approaches straight.>
I originally trained cross arm threadles too! I switched to the open arm threadle for most scenarios because it is easier to cue and run. So you can play with the open arm threadle but because she is so small, you will probably also want to dip your shoulder down a little so she can see it.
For the threadle slice here in the video – she is responsive enough to the soft brake at 1:12 that for *her*, it is no longer a threadle. Just a soft brake to turn to the line. That is good to know – she might not need threadles in places that bigger and less responsive dogs would totally need them.
>Will miss you at the Invitational (plus your pudding shots!) I had to laugh because the first email I got after I filled out the form to say I could course build was about assigning people to a ring and you telling them which days you could build (Like I know that when I’m stuck in rotation 5 each day and often near the end the rotation). I just ignored it and a few days later another email showed up saying they had rethought that plan and to just jump in whenever you could. So either they saw the light or a little birdie enlightened them.>
That is hilarious about trying to assign rings LOL!! A couple of months ago they said they’d be in touch to sort out how to manage it, but they never did… so it looks like they are learning on the fly. Assigning people is NOT the way to go so I am sure a little birdie enlightened them 🙂 Hope they are providing good snacks 🙂
Turns out that I would have have travel difficulties anyway, because a large piece of the RV is in the shop and I am not sure when I will get it back.
>And Lift had her ultrasound this morning. They’re sending it out to the ultrasound specialist to review but that usually only takes a day or two. The fecal dysbiosis test will probably about a week.>
Fingers crossed for easy answers!
Nice work here!
Tracy
Good morning!
Strong session here!
Going through the box to the MM? Lovely! She really liked it 🙂
Moving away from the MM was harder – but there were lots of good rewards so she still went through the box. Super!You added your motion to get more excitement but you can also move the MM further away now (15 feet!) and I bet that gets her running too 🙂
The tug break in the middle (and at the end) was perfectly timed and it was nice o see her engage with the toy after all the cookies 🙂 I think throwing the toy behind you to go back to the box shaping focused her on the toy and interrupted her train of thought – it was almost like she forgot what she was doing for a moment. I can relate, that happens to me 10 times a day LOL!!! To make a smoother transition, you can tuck the toy into a pocket or under your arm as you step over to the box for the next few reps.
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
> I think because he “seems” to not be affected by new environments and locations I was more assuming that we would see the same play behaviors in different situations.>
Yes, we don’t really see much of what is going on under the hood with him.>I was thinking of you and Vibe yesterday when I was training my pup outside in 85 degree heat 🙂 He seemed completely unaffected… but the tugging was more like mouthing different parts of the toy and less like full on tugging. Heat is yet another thing that the brain has to process and prioritize (it is kind of life-or-death to be able to regulate the body). My training game was SUPER simple (leash off, engagement on) because I figured the heat would be a challenge.
>after a nice forest hike. >
That must have been so lovely!!! The Chicago area is just getting into spring weather. A few of your MaxPup classmates are in the area and I think it is Dublin that takes classes at the Farm!
The rocking horses are going well of course – great to see him being able to take the game into a new environment. Easy peasy, it is stuff he has seen before and excelled at. He was great with sending backwards to the wings even as you were moving the other direction – that is going to translate into great commitment in the future!
Since he is doing well here, you can do a few things to build on it:
– more distance between wings, for more running for you both. That is fun 🙂 plus it challenges you to have to decelerate into the turns (which opens up countermotion opportunities)
– more distance between wings but you stationary in the middle, just doing one-step sends.
– add random turn and burn exits so he is really driving hard to chase you out of the turns.
When you were rewarding in the middle, you were having him do hand touches but they were slowing him down and swinging his butt wide 🙂 Tight turns are built from the joy of chasing the handler’s line, so you can make the reward more about ‘catch me if you can’ where you take off and run 🙂 Then as he catches up to you, you can throw the reward past you.
Strike a pose went great too! You don’t need yes and get it as markers – you can just do a get it to indicate where to look and go (the yes gets him looking up at you after he gets to your hand).
With that in mind – onwards to the next steps! We are going to make it more of a chain and fade the actual touch by having the reward on the ground (can be a food bowl or the MM) so he will come in and then zip right back out to the reward. You will see that he will start to side-swipe the hand touches and eventually not touch at all: perfect! We want the serp (and threadle eventually) to mean in-then-out so the reward on the ground will help produce that.
Great job here!!
Tracy
Hi!
Amazing! He immediately knew what to do. Your mechanics and connection were super too and that really helped make it easy for him!
He only had a small question at :24 and 1:06 where he checked in with you before going to the barrel. Both of these had him on your left side and I believe that little question was because you were actually too early on the cue 🙂 I know, it is rare that any of us are too early in agility LOL!
What I mean by that is at :24 and 1:06 you were starting the send to the barrel while he was still behind you and before he got to your hand – that seemed a little disconnected at this early stage.
Compare to :39 and 1:28 for example, where he was on your left side and went immediately to the barrel, no questions asked. On those reps, you were a little later with the send: you held your connection back to him until he just about got to your hand, and then you sent. That is perfect for now. As he gets more experienced, you won’t need to wait quite as much but the connection will still be important.
Two other things to do as we build up this game:
Resist temptation to do more than 2 or 3 – we don’t want it to get too repetitive because then it gets boring for him. You can do 2 or 3 barrels, then toss a ball! I think he would love that 🙂
As you work these games – be connected like you were but try it standing up more. You were leaned over to make clear connection, but we don’t want your back to get angry about it all 🙂 So be more upright but also be super connected – that will probably mean using your arm a little less, pointing it back and down to his nose so he can see your connection. And he is growing more, so you won’t need to lean over at all.
You can warm up the next session with a couple of reps like this, then move to the advanced level! And you can also take the baby level outside if the weather is good and the ground is not too muddy.
Great job!!!!
TracyGood morning!
Wowza, he is doing GREAT with the backing up! I think have our Cato bards as the destination make a huge difference for him. It is like he has little eyes on his feet and he is ‘looking’ for the destination so he is able to back up far and back up straight, without flinging himself backwards. Excellent!He is also backing up brilliantly onto the wobble board – no concerns about the noise or movement of the board. What a good boy! I am so impressed!
The only suggestion I have is to prop the wobble up with maybe a towel under the high end, so when he gets off of it, the bottom end (where he is getting on it) touches the ground. I suggest this because we don’t want him to accidentally smash a foot under the board if he puts one foot under it while the other gets on it. He has no concerns about the noise or movement, so now it is just about making sure he doesn’t get a foot caught under it.
Since this went really well, one of the next steps is to revisit it in a new location. If your weather is improving, it would be good to take simple versions of this outside. For example, one cato board and just a step or two backwards to start. You might find that he remembers nothing when he gets outside 😆 or he might remember everything and you can add back harder versions of the game very quickly.
Great job!
Tracy
Good morning!
>I thought we had the groove for RC until I added the prop! I’m not sure what I am doing to cause her to turn the other way.>
The magic of the rear crosses in these early stages is that you need to get ahead of her on the new side, so she can see the direction of the turn.
On the first side, when she was starting on your right: for almost all the reps, you were able to get ahead of her so she turned correctly. Yay! On some of the reps you had to be very quick to get there, but it worked out really well and she was very successful!
On the other side, a couple of things were happened to get her turning toward you like a front cross rather than getting the rear cross:
Mainly, she was not really moving away to the prop because she was looking at your hands (you mentioned this in the video too). That was causing you to wait for her to get past you… which made you late to get to the new side so she didn’t get the rear cross info in time to turn the new direction.
A couple of things to make it smoother:
– send with the dog-side hand empty 🙂 so she can’t lock onto treats in the send hand. You can show her that it is empty 🙂 She got a bit locked into the cookie hands because other than cookies tossed to the prop, all of the line up treats and rewards came from your hand so she was pretty convinced that it was a hand following game.
– the rewards can be thrown from the other hand… unless she locks onto that hand too, and then both hands can be empty until you are ready to reward. We don’t ned a precision reward here, so empty hands are perfectly fine but you will want to toss the rewards rather than hand-deliver them.
– And to get her driving to the prop on the send so you have time to get to the new side, you can warm up a few sends without the rear cross. Just send her to it then throw a treat to it. When she is heading to it really directly, you can add in getting to the new side then tossing the treat in the direction of the correct turn. That should help get her ‘line’ focused and not hand focused.
Nice work here! Let me know how she does with the empty hands and thrown rewards.
Tracy
Good morning!
>So do I just try to get his focus for a minute then start in? Guess I am not sure on how I interrupt him.>
For moments when he is caught in a distraction, to start the pattern game you can move him away, show a good cookie (put it on his nose to help break through the challenge he is having), then toss it. It might feel like bit of lure but it completely designed to help him out in moments where he might not know what to do. (I mean, I would personally love it if someone put a chocolate chip cookie on my nose to help redirect me when I am freaking over doing my taxes hahahaha)
The adolescent brain makes does things like cause the pup to move *closer* to something they are worried about (brains are weird 😂) so moving him away and showing the treat will help. And if he is still too close to something challenging, you can move him further away.
This includes ultra exciting things if they are hard to ignore, not just weird things – watching dogs running through a tunnel is hard for many young dogs, or seeing favorite people 🙂
>Fun to see the next games. Sad that these are the end of Max 1.>
Actually… this is the Supersized class so it is not over yet, it is only halfway through 🙂 The original class (now called Fast Track) is a 12 week class and they finish next week. But those pups were a lot older when they started. Here in this edition of Supersized, the games are released every 2 weeks so you are stuck with me for another 12 weeks!!
> Will you be doing two soon? >
Yes, but ignore it 🙂 That MaxPup 2 will be posted shortly but it is for the older Fast Track group. Your question reminds me that I need to to clarify it for the Supersizers so there is no confusion. You all will get your own MaxPup 2 when this is finished – look for it over the summer which is perfect timing for the bigger games that require more room.
>I don’t think I had mentioned I was laid off right before it started and this has made my time off so much more enjoyable. I was supposed to start new job today but they pushed it out to next Monday. >
Ugh, getting laid off must have been incredibly sucky and stressful but I am glad you start a new job next week! Yay!!
>The good news is I have more time this week to play the last games with Dublin.>
The timing is good now that the weather is better and more daylight to be able to work the upcoming games around your new work schedule too!
Looking at the video:
The rocking horses are off to a great start! You had very clear connection and mechanics – he seemed to completely understand the concept, committing beautifully. You had your wrap verbal too – click/treat to you! Since this went pretty perfectly, a couple of ‘next steps’:
– you can take the barrels outside to give yourself more room and add more distance (you might have to put stuff in them to weigh them down LOL)
– you can move to the advanced level where you are moving faster and rotating a little sooner
– You can add a tug toy 🙂 This will add challenge because he will have to ignore the toy to go to the barrel. We don’t need precision rewards for it, so you can have it tucked into a pocket at first to make it easier to ignore.>1st I had issues trying to figure how to set up and video for you. >
The camera angle was perfect!
> Dublin is eating those pumpkin treats and they were not breaking well >
That was one of the challenges, along with that he was chewing them and they were bouncing all around LOL! So what was happening was he was ended in up different-than-planned angles and sometimes losing his train of thought while chewing (I can completely relate to this LOL!)
He ended up doing threadles on a lot of reps because of the angle of the cookie bounce – he was correct and he got rewarded, so it was still a good session!
So for tossed treats, will his kibble bounce less and not need chewing? If the kibble will still be unpredictable, we can go with a stay and either the toy or the pumpkin treats (or any treat since it is not being thrown)
The stay and the toy reps were great! You were able to line him up in each different position and release perfectly to the serp – so the stay is the winner here! You can reward the stay after you arrive in position for the serp and especially mix in rewards for NOT moving when you put your serp arm out so he doesn’t think the arm is the release. You can reward by throwing a treat back to him when you are in position (it is fine if it bounces around because he can move to get it and take as long as needed to chew it 🙂 ) Ideally you would get into position, put your arm out… then either release with a ‘break’ or ‘ok’, or use a ‘catch’ marker and throw a reward back to him 🙂
>I noticed I kept pointing my feet wrong so will have to fix that too. >
That will be an easy fix when you aren’t worried about the darned cookie bounces LOL! And as you move to the next level of dangling the toy then getting the food bowl or toy to the ground, it will be easy to remember to point your feet to the toy.
>Afterwards I played a little longer and found one of is teeth is very loose. Poor pup can’t win with food or toys today.>
Poor buddy! But he was tugging like a beast 🙂 so I guess his mouth doesn’t hurt too much or he just really loves tugging (or both!)
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
> I practiced the collection exercise using food and a toy, and quickly realized that I needed to work on my own coordination before using the toy. Hah! Work in progress!
I totally relate 😂 it doesn’t matter how many previous agility dogs that I have run… each new puppy requires me to work on my own coordination 😆
>I use the verbal cue “Go” for my forward sends to a clicker board. I will start using it on other objects as well.>
If he goes to the barrel on the “go”, change it as soon as possible as to your wrap verbal. I want him to go to the barrel, but I don’t want him to think “go” means to wrap. Keep me posted!
Tracy
