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Hi!
The backing up onto the pad went well! And I love how you were scooting the pad away with your feet, that was perfect for stealthily adding distance a tiny bit at a time. She did really well!! That chair was perfect for the game.
> Now trying to transition to standing>
Actually, no need to stand at this point! You can sit because it gets the really good form and that is most important (and easier for us humans, which is nice too :)) . So instead of standing, you canwork on more distance to the mat and adding a verbal cue to it. The verbal cue will make it easier to get the good form while you are standing too.
> I’ve learned that she doesn’t generalize well at all. lol. A lot of crazies going on at my house, I’m having several very large trees removed and it’s making training a challenge. Lots of noise and people. I’m going to have to catch up when they are done. Hopefully that will be Wednesday.>
I can see why that would be hard! You can try the pattern game from the resilience track while the craziness is happening – that is a great use for it!
Great job!
Tracy
Oops forgot to answer this:
>I’m headed to SF for a UKI trial (Monday). The courses for that day are designed by Tamas Traj, one of the judges for next months UKI Invitationals. It will be helpful to see what we’re in for there. >
FUN!! Get ready to run run run and expect lots of layering, distance, discriminations (jump-tunnel-weave).
>Also, rain is expected through the week. Given the weather, and concern that Jazz may have pain/discomfort, what sort of things can we be working on in the house this week??
I think it would be fun to do some lineup games, maybe more shaping of her cute face into the loop of the leash, and some tricks! What tricks does she know? Those are perfect for rainy days.
Tracy
Hi!
Looking at the first video:
Driving ahead looked really good here, the placed toy definitely helped!> On the first right turn he seemed to be expecting to go to the reward again but did follow through on the turn.>
You were a little late on the cue there (:14) – it started after he had made the takeoff decision and you were still running on the go line when he had to decide how to take off. You were much earlier at :21 on the next rep (and the reps after that), already showing the pressure on the line when he had exited the tunnel. That set up lovely RCs!
When you changed sides, adding the wings went really well! The rear cross timing was a little harder. You were actually too early at 1:09 – you can see your left foot was already facing the red jumps on the other side when he exited the tunnel instead of moving to the center of the bar. That is what pushed him off the line there (he turned before the jump).
You overcompensated by running straight for too long on the next rep 🙂 but the rep after that at 1:39 was spot on! Super!
You got the best RCs when you accelerated to the center of the bar. When you were hanging back a bit, you ended up running a bit too straight so he curled in towards your position (like at 1:46). That L-shaped running line created too much of a turn so he missed the wing after it. But whne you accelerated more, he read the RCs better and found the wing after it easily.
He did really well with the first layering concept! Good boy! Well done with your reward placement on those too. I think he liked the run run running part of it all 🙂 After he got the hang of it, he only had one question (:59) where he almost didn’t go to the jump. That was because you turned pretty early there, so the body said tunnel 🙂
Were you saying ‘jump’ or ‘go’ there? If you were saying ‘jump’ – carry on 🙂 If you were saying ‘go’ you can add in a jump verbal, because naming the obstacles can really help with discriminations!
The 5 bar ladder was challenging! He really had to think about his balance! On the 1st, 2md, and last rep, he did well on in the first 2 gaps (jumps 1-2-3) but then got a little weight shifted forward on the last 2 gaps (jumps 3-4-5). It is subtle at full speed, so you can watch in slow motion and you’ll see his head come up and hind end lift a bit.
The 3rd rep had the best balance! Good boy!Being held at the start might have added a little more excitement 🙂 so you can put that first bar down one notch lower so it is easier to step in even when he is pumped up.
To help him learn to stay balanced across all 5 jumps, you can move veryyyyy slooowwwwwwllllly LOL almost shuffling so he has a little less stimulation from the moving target.
Great job here!
TracyHi!
Good for you for pushing the limits – she was GREAT!!Finding the small cookie was the only hard part. She found the bigger treat easily and was great about tugging too! Your blinds looked good – nice and connected! And she pivoted with you brilliantly. You can add more running 🙂 by running away while she is getting the start cookie, to add more distance so she gets to run more too. And you can tug more after the pivots, and also add in throwing the toy straight ahead for her to chase too! She was really focused and engaged here!
Her pattern game session also looked lovely. She was excited to start it and fully engaged even before you tossed the first treat. Fabulous! Her engagement was terrific. You can add your motion to this too, strolling back and forth. The long line worked well but you can also use a regular 4 or 6 foot leash for this – that way you can get her closer to distractions and get her comfy doing this with a normal leash like she would be doing near the ring.
> I can see where my brain gives out (End of Trial Day Exhaustion) – and I revert back to ‘yes’ instead of ‘get it’ ….I am DETERMINED to get this :D.>
Ha! You can try setting a timer so keep the sessions to 30 seconds then break off to play tug, then do another 30 seconds… that way you get a break if your brain is tired. Macklynn was fine with the length of the session here 🙂
> Macklynn, however, seemed confident. She was on a decent length long-line that she is normally comfortable dragging around, but she didn’t seem to have any desire to get away.>
Yes, she looked happy, relaxed, and engaged. Super!!!
>I’m hoping to push the envelope on this in a more exciting area of the facility during next weekend’s trial.>
I think she is ready for more! That can be more tugging and running, or getting closer to the action. Have fun and keep me posted!
Nice work here 🙂
TracyHi!
>I think I’ve ruined the awesome little poodle that I had. I’ve created a confused pup. Hard to know if she’s in discomfort, or my confusing handling is causing the shutdown problems.>
You have NOT ruined her! We will sort out the puzzle. For training – she did well with the food and I want to get you doing an even higher rate of reinforcement! More on that below.
> I am concerned that if she is in pain or has discomfort that could explain the change in her response to these agility games.>
Possibly! Which is why we are sticking to easy, non-impact stuff. You can also give her a week off of training and see if it helps. Maybe ask the vet about a pain trial? A week of pain meds to see how she does? That can be incredibly helpful.
And also, in training you will want to reward *all* the things that happen in handling games, because if she is not getting rewarded due to a handler error, then it is deflating and confusing. And if something hurts, it can definitely be challenging.
>We played with the “Diamond” exercise, with just food. I realized after viewing this that I wasn’t starting her from a sit like you suggested… instead I’d start when she was “kind of” lined up>
That was fine! We still got some good feedback from her!
There were definitely some frozen moments, more on that below.
>. Couple of things I can improve on: reward more frequently,>
Yes! Reward all the things, in small bursts. Of course reward when it goes according to plan, but more importantly: reward if it does not go to plan. Because these are handling games, she can only respond to the cues she sees. And you have to assume that if the behavior is not what you wanted then the cue was not clear enough.
For example: you had gorgeous connection consistently on those tight blinds, so she nailed them!
She had questions in other spots, like coming back out of the tunnel at :42 when you pulled away too early. You can just reward that and for now, use a straighter tunnel so it is easier to stay committed even if you pull away too early.
Also, pointing ahead of her tends to be where more of the errors happen, when she pulls off a wing or the tunnel. You can see it at :53, 1:27, 1:11, 1:56 (she started sniffing when you stopped). You might have been able to see her, but with your arm ahead she could not really see which way to go and either guessed or stopped. In those moments, you marked her as being wrong which is deflating, so she gets more sticky.
You can also see it at 1:41 on the way to the tunnel – the pointing ahead caused you to turn away from the tunnel before she was committed, so she came off – you stopped to sort out the handling and did reward after a bit, but she perceives the stop as puniushment.
So on all of those, just keep running for a few more steps and praise and reward! No worries about accuracy at all for now.
> reward on her line instead of out of my hand (She seems to be looking for the reward too much). >
I agree about looking up at you a bit too much – partially because the food was from your hands, partially because she was not sure of what to do due to the no-reward moments, so she was watching more. You can use a lotus ball or treat hugger to be able to throw food rewards more easily.
>Also using the correct wrap verbals might clear up some of her confusion.>
Yes but I think connection is more important, so no worries about the words for now 🙂
Since we are also trying to sort out if she has anything that hurts, I watched her movement in slow motion for a lot of it. It is hard to see a fast little black dog move! At the beginning, it looked like a little bit of bunny hopping (keeping back legs close together) around the wing like at :14-15, :27-:28. And she had a stop in the action at :32, a frozen mment. Were you pointing ahead too much? Probably 🙂 But the motion was good and the wing was visible, so I played that in slow motion – there is some offloading of her left hind :33- :39) She got moving again when a cookie was visible. It is interesting to note this in case you need to show it to anyone,
Speaking of showing it to someone, how far are you from this, I think it is in Petaluma? There are spots left for evals and I think Dr. Canapp might be a bit of a genius!
https://townandcountrydtc.org/stride-to-strength-apr-2026/
>I have tapped down her back and she does react (her bitey behavior) when I get close to her rear>
Darn it, I wish I had asked you to video that! My bad!! Gentle tapping should produce a little ripple or spasm, so if you got bitey behavior then yes, she has an ouch or is feeling defensive about the area back there.
> – hard to tell if that is due to discomfort or just her bitey self as she can get bitey when I scratch her head, or rub her neck – sometimes and sometimes not. >
Could all be linked. Does she sometimes do a bit of puppy chewing on your hand, versus grabbing your hand harder/bitey behavior?
>Nothing stuck in her mouth, I did have to pull/pry the upper baby canine tooth on Weds and plan on having the vet check that when we go in for the spine x-ray to make sure it didn’t break off when I removed it.>
Yes definitely! And to keep all things happy and fun with you, have someone else pull her teeth LOL!
If you do repeat the tapping, grab some video!
Nice work here, keep me posted!Tracy
Hi!
I admit to laughing when he went rocketing by the prop (like Kramer from Seinfeld entering a room), did not get the click, then rage barked at you LOL! He is so fun!I totally see what you mean about the hits being clearer and more obvious on your right side. When he is on your left side, he looks at you more – it might be a value question where he has also gotten value for looking at you (informal heeling or loose leash walking) on your left side.
To balance it – keep marking/rewarding for hitting the prop when he is on your right side, that was great. And when he is on your left side, you can mark/reward for looking at the prop on his way to it. You had some good clicks towards the end of the session for that, and it really helped! If you are marking for looking at the prop, it will be earlier and he doesn’t have to touch it (for now). Soon you will be able to mark for hitting it on your left side too.
And to keep him looking forward, having the treats ready to toss and using the ‘get it’ without the click will help him look ahead more on both sides.
He did well with the turn and burn here! Love the new door behind him too 🙂 It is possible that he hasn’t wrapped this particular basket at first, so he couldn’t quite sort it out with the toy excitement. The food lure helped and then he did really well. There was something on the table that was distracting him a bit but also those were left turns, which we know are harder.
For the next turn and burn session, start with a little warm up and when he says “yes, I remember the barrel” you can add more countermotion: when he is wrapping, you will do a FC and move away on an L-shaped line. In this video, it would be towards the door or towards the camera, depending on which direction you are going.
Great job here!
Tracy
Hi!
It looks like he was great at the seminar! I love the song too 🙂>Tribute was a little stuck at first. However, when he got going he was fantastic!>
Yes! He had a big lightbulb moment then did great!
> Following the handler – Tribute is still not overly thrilled with driving to a dead toy. However, my forward movement helped a little.>
To help jump start the driving to the dead toy: if you have other people around like at a seminar, you can have the toy on a line and as soon as you start driving to it, the other person can drag it for him to chase. Then you can fade out the dragging more and more until it is stationary.
> Reverse wrap on a wing – These went reasonably well! I was less coordinated than he was!>
Yes! And based on how well he did when he was offering the jump, I bet he will offer the wing wrap for that game too.
> Lead changes on a series of wings – Tribute does not have a working startline and has an issue with collar grabs so I couldn’t do many of these.
It looks like he was on a line so he didn’t have to have a collar grab, and that worked well.
> developing a startline stay (work in progress!)>
Let me know how the stay is going or if he is having trouble!
Nice work here 🙂
Tracy
Good morning!
She did GREAT with the toy on the ground here!! Well done! I think she had a tiny bit of trouble processing the verbal: is it a cone directional, or a get the toy marker? So sometimes she would choose the wrong behavior based because she hadn’t really processed the word before she moved. What you can do for that is after she walks back to the cone with you, gently hold her collar so you can say the verbal 3 or 4 times, then let her go. She still has the agency to do the wrong thing, but the collar hold will help her process the verbal so she is likely to get it right 🙂
For the next session, keep going with walking away from the toy like you did here. And you can add in doing a FC after the cone: can she process a side change? And if that goes well, add in a decel and pivot before driving to the toy.
She did great with the parallel path game! Yay! At this stage, we can change the timing of your ‘get it’ marker: rather than reward for getting over the bar, you can mark earlier. Basically, you are rewarding commitment now: mark and throw as soon as you see her approaching the bar, but before she gets to it and before she looks at you. This will strengthen commitment even more and keep her looking straight ahead 🙂
Great job!
Tracy
Good morning!
> tried using shorter throws. 90% of the time, he still turns back towards me. he puts himself perpendicular to the wall then turns back to where I was. seems he’s almost afraid of my sneaking up behind him. not sure what to try next.>
Two ideas for you:
– If you were working on one direction (such as getting him to rear cross to his right), try switching sides to get him to rear cross to his left. You might find one side easier than the other for him.
– if he is turning the wrong way, it is entirely possible that you are not visible on the new side early enough for him to turn towards you in the new direction. He might be a fast eater 🙂 With the goal being that you get all the way past his shoulder and eyes on the new side before he finishes the cookie, you can throw several cookies to keep him busy for longer, so you have more time. And you can also use a bowl with a small bit of cream cheese in it for him to lick – that way you have more time too 🙂 That way, it won’t matter if he is perpendicular to the wall because you will have several more seconds to be fully visible on the new side to get him to turn the new direction.
> i also don’t know what to do about collar grabs. we practice them and he is fine, but when we add the game to them, he won’t come for the cookie, no matter how high value. he just wants to get on with the game. >
Awwww he loves to play with you! Cool! Ok looking at it from the perspective of he is enjoying the play and the ‘work’, you can lure him in with a cookie (a GREAT cookie) and maybe even a hand touch. And as soon as he comes in close to you – send him into a game. Then you can lure him in close to you, add in the barest hint of touching the collar… then boom! Right into a game (can be as simple as a chase-the-cookie game 🙂 ) And definitely don’t move him around by the collar, lots of pups don’t like it and will avoid that happening. Lots of quick fun reps with quick releases into the game will help build the collar grab into a fun thing!
Keep me posted!
TracyGood morning!
She did really well with the sideways and backwards sending, even with you holding the big toy. Super! Your connection and verbals were spot on so she did really well. Yay! You can start moving away a little sooner, to add countermotion – when she is just a couple of inches away from arriving at the barrel, you can slowly start moving the other direction.
One thing that I noticed is that she doesn’t always know how to release the toy then NOT re-grip or jump up for it when you are getting it into position for the next rep. Using the treat like you did at 1:10 and 2:17 worked well! You can also reward with the toy if she doesn’t jump up, using your ‘strike’ marker, like this:
She doesn’t have to sit like Jitterbug did in the 2nd half of the video – she just needs to not grab it 🙂>This is round two. The first round she snagged the toy out of my hand after the third rep and went leaping and zooming all over the couches, living room etc. When I finally caught here I put her up and played with Sprite for a bit. I’m working too hard to try to engage her. She isn’t naturally wanting to engage and is more interested in her environment.>
I think you will get more engagement if you don’t give a time out for that 🙂 The catching her, time out, then hearing/seeing Sprite play is significant enough of a punisher that I think it is actually increasing interest in the environment and decreasing engagement, rather than decreasing running off. Instead, if she starts to have a Living Room Zoomfest, just don’t react at all. Either wait for a few seconds and see if she can chill herself out. Or just offer her a better toy or a couple of treats scattered on the floor to come back 🙂
Will the treat scatter or new toy reward/increase running off? I am thinking it will not – it will reduce the pressure by reducing the possibility of punishment/increasing the availability of reinforcement, so she is more likely to engage!
Nice work here!
Tracy
Oh crud, I am sorry I missed it!!!! Apologies!! Thanks for the poke to come find it!
You two did a great job with the turn and burn – it was an excellent combination of a super structured session (great setup, short, very successful) and SUPER FUN!!! It is unusual that puppies can generalize the game as well as he did! Your timing, connection, and fun factor were spot on.
He also did a great job with his parallel path game! I love his focus and engagement and even as you added speed, he was still finding the prop. You might notice that when you were going faster, he was leaping over the prop rather than smacking it: for this game, that is perfectly fine! If you want to train a running dog walk, we will use a different target to get him hitting it with back feet.
The pattern game was easy and fun for him too. You can try playing it with more people walking around and maybe a another pup on the floor! He might need to be no leash when another pup is out on the floor, but that is good because it is also a real life scenario.
The handling combo with the blind to decel also looked great. Excellent job keeping things fast and fun, while also being super connected.
> I did a few of those wrong with too much of a turn before the go.>
No worries! Part of the goal of the game is for the pups to stick with us, no matter what happens 🙂
>Got picture of Dublin watching your videos lol. Added picture of Dublin and Brighton doing happy crating>
Adorable!
>We went for a little walk with my friend and her Tri-pod Vizsla and went for lunch at a microbrewery. Dublin did great for both experiences.>
That sounds wonderful!
Fantastic job here, and apologies again for not seeing this sooner!!
Tracy
Good morning!
The collection sandwich videos look great! It looks like the baby level was very easy! He was surprised in a good way when you threw the toy on the first rep of the advanced level! And he did great going from the cookie back to the toy, no problem at all.
The only question was a handling question – how much of at turn to make before you threw the toy for the go go go at the end. You can do a “u-turn” and throw the toy back to where he got the start cookie, I think that will be smoother. You were doing a full circle which was harder to get the toy throw out in front of him.
For the next session, we can add more speed and distance! You can start running away after you send him to his treat, so he sees you moving then decelerating into the turn – that will get the turns even tighter 🙂 And more distance will allow for longer toy throws, which helps get him driving ahead even more. If the weather is good, try it outside! To find the start cookie, you can bring out a towel to toss it onto so he doesn’t lose it in the grass.
>We have been working on the turn and burn for several days as well. He didn’t get it at all initially, but is starting to understand the game.>
He totally is! Yay!
>He does much better on my right side than the left, but it starting to get it. You will see that if he is not properly lined up on that left side he runs behind me. But when I line him up he is about 80% consistent.>
Yes, totally agree that the lineup is a key element here. You can line him up with precision at your side on both sides – a cookie lure is very helpful to get him to come in close to you, and then you can hold his collar/harness until you are ready for the send to the barrel.
When he was on your right and not lined up (kind of off to the side), there was a little hesitation on the send to the barrel. When he was on your left side, the line ups really helped and also you can stay more connected on the send: as you send to the barrel, watch him more with your eyes (instead of looking at the barrel).
That will mean a little less pointing forward with your arm – your hand can be low and giving a gentle ‘swoosh’ to the barrel, and your leg can step to the barrel as you look at him. A good exmaple of that was at :59 on the video – he was lined up and saw the connection so went to the barrel really well! When you pointed and didn’t connect, he showed us his left turn preference: he know it was something with the barrel but went to his stronger side 🙂
As you get more comfy with the line ups and sends on both sides, you can totally add in a wrap verbal (instead of the ‘go) and then add in the line on the ground, because using it will tell you when you can do a FC and run away to reward.
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning! Thank you for the seminar snippets 🙂
His pop up ears are just the BEST!Vibe did great in the new environment, might even be easier for him than the busier environments he has trained in. He looked HAPPY and filled with joy to be working with the momma.
Super fun to see him and Rou passing each other and ignoring each other 🙂 And he ignored the big Golden who came out to work too. And then all 3 MaxPuppers were out, I am so proud! Good baby dogs and moms!
His little tail was wagging a mile a minute while you were sitting in the chair while he was on the cot LOL!!! And it was definitely nice start line work.
>Still a great opportunity to work around other dogs in a brand new location and he had fun. 😉>
YES! And I trust you to advocate for your dog and know nothing bad would happen. Just wish you didn’t have to advocate and protect him!
> (where Vibe was sure the tree stump was a new parallel path prop 🤣)>
PARKOUR!!! He was reminding you that the Parkour Era is not over 🙂
>” it was HEAVY on control, medium on focus, and not much drive work.>
Sadly, “drive” work tends to be all about suppressing/controlling arousal in much of the dog sport world. Too much control is no fun for anyone and not really helpful either.
>Lots of mild to moderate to serious compulsion, coercion, punishment stuff in the explanations and demos. I really don’t like it when frustration and extinction bursts are used as a primary tool for training.>
UGH!!!! The science also doesn’t like it when punishment/frustration/extinction are primary tools (or, in many cases, tools AT ALL). With so much available information out there, I struggle to understand why people still use these tools. And don’t get me started about the social media thing that went around a while back about how we totally should just let the dogs fail repeatedly and let them get frustrated (turns out that was written by AI which explains why the ‘scientific explanations’ were actually not correct). Sigh.
>When a forward focus was demoed with the facility’s owner’s 18 month old dog and the dog repeatedly did the cartoon yoink where the dog bolts to the end of the long line, the instructor steps on it and the dog’s body goes flying forward while their neck jerks back, I don’t really find it funny or instructive.>
I find it sad and upsetting. Ok, horrifying. Poor dog, especially in a critical adolescent age. When I teach in person puppy seminars, I never let people step on the leash for exactly that reason.
> A bit of Serenity prayer mantra on my end.>
Yep, totally understandable and I have done that many many times and still have to whip it out sometimes – but generally I am old and cranky so I can’t keep my mouth shut.
And I am very limited with who I will take working spots with my young dogs anymore here on the East Coast. SO MUCH COMPULSION and punishment! So far there are only 3 instructors that I have worked with relatively recently and am comfortable bringing my baby dogs to for classes/seminars – Casey Keller puts on lovely young dog seminars and I have never seen anything icky from her. And the other 2 are flyball instructors but the concepts are the same for agility foundations 🙂 I think there are more on the West Coast in terms of instructors who are wonderful and safe 🙂 but I am also picky about how they do with non-BCs because not all dog brains are wired the same.Anyway – good job to you for making a fantastic day out of what could have been an icky situation!!!!! Vibe looked amazing!!
Tracy
Good morning! Hope you had a great weekend!
She did really great driving away here! She drove away with speed but then collected brilliantly to hit the prop and turn. BIG YAY!!! That is what we want!
Interestingly, she turned to her left on all the reps here. The reps from :24 to the end (except the last one) should have been left turns (turning towards you). On the other side, from the beginning to :18 and on the last rep, she also turned left – away from you! I scrolled back to see if she had already told us about a left turn side preference or not, but I couldn’t find it (and I can’t remember due to lack of caffeine LOL!)
I love knowing the side preference! It is also possible that she was turning left because the right turn area did not have a lot of room – the wall and the treadmill applied ‘pressure’ on the right turn which might have created the left turns by pressuring both of your lines – it did look like a RC to her!
So, to get more right turns when sending sideways/backwards from your right arm, give yourself more room on that side (the prop can move to a new spot depending on which side you are on) and you can be further away, laterally, (nearer to the wall in this case) to encourage the right turns.
>wow what a difference when I gave her some room to “run” to start. I think this kid will turn on the after burners once we get outside and get to do all these fun running/chase games! 🙂>
It is very exciting! The end result will be a thoughtful, accurate dog who is also incredibly fast 🙂 Patience is the key – the speed comes with understanding so we are in no rush. You will have to ignore all the people on social media rushing their puppies LOL!!
> Maybe it is good thing that we are practicing in a small space first ?! 😀 I am itching & looking forward to when we can really run!!>
It is definitely good to get the understanding in a small space and make it fun. It all comes together really well!!
The beginning of the backing up video was hilarious – 10 seconds of absolute patience… then a reminder to ‘hurry up, human!’ She is so funny!
The session went really well! BIG progress with lots of steps back! She seems to understand the reward placement because even when the treat bounced away, she kept herself in position and moving backwards. That helps a whole lot because you will get more backing up if she knows exactly how/where to get the reward.
Because she is growing a whole lot, you can keep this at just a few steps back for now and revisit it once or twice a week. The reason for that is because she is basically waking up with new legs evrey day and will have to re-learn how to organize them at the start of every session 🙂 So each session can start with a reminder followed by adding another step or two to build up distance.
>s I didn’t want to load her up on charlie bears either, unless I just do like 5 or so C.B. “reps”?>
Yes, you can limit reps of break the CBs in half. Also, I think they are super low in calories and light in the belly, so she can have a decent amount (8 or 10 reps or so, depending on how much else you are doing in terms of training that day) without overloading her.
Great job here!
Tracy
