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Hi!
Thanks for the update!!
>>First run Speedstakes. I brought him into the upper part of the arena and kept him out of direct site line to the course below by standing behind the bleachers. He was distracted but was able to engage with me and even responded when I said his name. He couldn’t tug though. >>
That is great! No worries about the tugging for now.
>>On the arena floor he had a harder time. No real engagement until we went to the practice jump. At the jump he could do what I asked but kept an eye on the ring as well. >>
Good boy! This made something pop into my mind: since we know he likes to work and he likes to move: does he know how to weave between your legs? That could be a great way for him to remain engaged outside the ring and be working and moving too!
>>He was good on line. Able to sit and somewhat chill. No barking. I felt good going into the ring>>
Yes! That is great!
>>In the ring he was very antsy on the start line. He stayed but pushed it. >>So… just like at home 🙂 That is fine – I know his stay isn’t perfect yet but any behavior in the ring that is same as the home behavior is still a big win!
>>The run itself was perfect. No errors. He leashed good at the end and outside the ring I sent him to his ball and he grab it and was ready to tug.>>
Wow! Fantastic!! That must have felt great, from beginning to end!
>>Second run Jumpers. This time I brought him in and let him sit on the bleachers and watch. He sat but then got pretty aroused and started barking. >>Yes, he is not a good watcher. He needs to work and move, so watching is not a good thing for now.
>>So back to the other side of the bleachers a little warm up, down to the practice jump, back in line and all was good.>>
Perfect! Excellent choice and adjustment!
>> I decided to try a down at the start line and that didn’t work. He didn’t stay in a down and he moved closer to the jump as I lead out. He at least waited to be released >>
Good boy again! The stay is not quite fully trained yet but he isn’t self-releasing.

>>The run started a little too frantic with him taking 2 turn cues too soon and missing the jumps.>>That sounds like handler error not dog error LOL!! Sounds like he was listening and responding! Yay!
>>So we regrouped and started from obstacle 4 and it was near perfect. We had a bar due to my late turn cue, and he overshot his weave entrance which is ok for a novice dog but he got back in and finished it perfectly. >>
This is terrific!!
>>Good releash at finish and out of the ring to his ball reward and some tugging. I was very pleased. >>
And you should be pleased! Sounds like things went really well!!!
>>I scratched the 3rd run since I knew I’d be fighting the start line with no real plan and he didn’t need to fight his arousal urge any more that evening. >>
SMART!!!! Excellent decision to end on a high note.
I agree that he did GREAT and there is big progress!! You made great decisions too and that helped him a lot. So give me a list of moving behaviors he enjoys doing so we can use that as his form of engaged chill 🙂
>>I think I’ll take a start line class that will give me some ideas at some start line options and force me to work on it. >>
Yes! He just needs more training and experience with the start line without moving. He wants to move, so you can reward him a LOT for not moving, starting away from the jumps for now.
>>He seemed to relax a bit at the trial, wag his tail, ears up, jump up on me and engage >>
This is the BEST part of it all!! YAY!!!! We want him to relax and have a great time. SUPER!!! You two are totally on the right track! Keep it up!!!!
Tracy
Hi!
The sequences are looking really strong!
The BC at :35 on the first video and at :07 on the 2nd video was earlier than the previous reps but can still be even earlier (I know, I am a pain hahaha!) So when you see his front feet land from 1, tell him to take 2 and start the BC 🙂Nice job with the turn on 3!!
On the jump after the tunnel at :49 (first video) and :20 (2nd video) – there is a lot of hustle required to get to the takeoff side, which makes slowing down to get the FC really hard, so he was waiting for information. This might be a great spot for a blind cross there – it all be easier to execute and still get a great turn!
I am not sure why he turned to his left at :51. There might have been a subtle pull that direction in the handling, but more likely he didn’t want to jump towards he pressure of the stuff there. Good job continuing! He had a little struggle with sniffing for a moment – possibly tired this was in the same session as the other runs? Good job getting him pumped up again to finish strong!
He turned correctly at :23 on the 2nd video, but you can see him slowing down and measuring his stride there, so it does look like he was not comfy jumping towards all the stuff there.
Great job getting him to the backside (and not the delicious off course tunnel!) on both videos!!! And well done for the strong ending each time too 🙂
Great job!
TracyHi!
I am glad he measured into 20”!!
The T2B run went well 🙂
2 ideas for you:Try to move to the start line either with him doing tricks or tugging on the leash, so you don’t need to use the leash to get his head up.
Stay connected as you lead out – he totally thought the reconnection was going to be the release.
The stopped a-frame looked great! And so did the handling sections. Yay!
The 2nd video here is also the T2B run, ca you re-post the JWW run?
Great job!
TracyHi!
>>The smaller mat & just tossing the ‘get it’ cookie worked great. I think the banana line will be coming up next!>>
Awesome!!! And yes, you can move to the banana line game 🙂
He totally is a parallel path champion! He was adding a lot of speed and finding it really easily. He also quickly figured out that the reward would be ahead of him, so he was doing a great job of looking forward. Yay!
Keep throwing the reward earlier and earlier – you can mark and throw for the intent to go to the jump, meaning as soon as he looks at it and takes a step towards it. And throwing it further will give you a chance to move yourself more laterally away for the next rep (which I agree, he is ready for).
Great job here!
TracyHoly cow I somehow missed the post, I am so sorry!!! If you don’t get a reply within a day, feel free to poke me!
He did a great job here! I am glad he did well with the inflatables/wedge/pod setup! Moving to the wobble board was perfect and this setup looked great.
Only one suggestion from this session: When delivering the reward, you can feed with his head lower, so his chin is parallel to the ground or pointing slightly downwards. That will be better for hims balance. When he tilts his head all the way up, he is shifting his weight a little off balance and that will make things harder when the objects are even less stable.
>>Should I started adding the noise element or stick with movement for a while longer?>>
You can make one variable harder at a time and make other variables easier as you do that. So you can add noise (moving the board to a noisy floor is probably the easiest way to do it :)) but when you do that, put another carpet square or two under the board so the movement is easier in case the noise proves to be hard for him. And if you want to add more movement, no need to also add noise. I think you can do both in separate sessions, rather than only stick to movement. If he disagrees and acts uncertain, then you can back off the difficulty and just have him play on a barely-moving wobble board.
Great job here!!
TracyHi!
Really good setup here! Small room, rugs so he doesn’t slip = perfect!
He started to retrieve the toy to you a little then yes, the keep away. So the good news is that he likes the toy! Yay! When he is going to the toy or picking it up, I think when you get excited he is expecting a cookie perhaps? And drops the toy. So you can be quieter and tap the ground or say “bring it” when he has it, trying to avoid the “yay!” and praise that might get him thinking a cookie is coming.
Two things you can do to help with the keep away:
– make the play with the toy last longer before you take the toy away for the next rep. If you get the toy then take it away pretty quickly, he might stop bringing it back 🙂 So try for very long play (30 seconds or so) then let him win the toy again.
– you can tie the toy to 2 or 3 more toys, so you have a 6 foot long toy 🙂 That way when you toss it and he gets one end, you can engage with him by picking up the other end and playing. Even if he steps away with the toy, you still have part of the toy to engage with him and prevent the keep away.
Great job!
TracyOMG I love him! So cute!!! His retrieve is looking great and it is so much fun to do retrieve games when he is so adorable and clever! YAY!! He gets 100000000 style points 🙂
Have fun!
TracyHi!
That is a busy day! She has more of a life than I do LOL!!
On the video:
She did well with the tugging before and after! The shredding the toy at the end might have been a decompression moment after a big long day – she was not leapy (yay!) and so you can actually cue the decompression at the end by either letting her have the toy to shred a bit (this gets expensive, speaking from personal experience from replacing a lot of toys haha!) or giving her something cheap to shred like the cardboard innards of a paper towel roll.The get out is going well! She went to it really well when you cued it (the prop as a LOT of value :)) And she did well moving past it when you were early on her name call. You can break up this cookie-heavy session with some chasing you with the cookies to maintain the high arousal so that it doesn’t get too chill.
>>For the RDW mat stuff, I used the cato board with a mat over it for Kaladin. Would that be confusing if I also sometimes ask her to station on there or does the context make it clear?>>
Hmmm, good question, and since it is a bit grey that means we should not do it. No need to introduce any potential grey areas! Plus, the Cato board and plank are probably a bit too big for her. You can get a smaller boat (I use a small aerobic step for my littles) and put a yoga mat on the top of it (the magic of duct tape!). That should be a good size for her and different from the station spot.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
It is indeed a balancing act!
>>I have found that she starts to get a bit pent if we do 2 days of no walks, which has happened due to weather or me being sick. But I do think I should keep in mind the length of the walks. She’s so fun to walk with that it’s easy to stay out for a while. >>
That is a good point! She does need physical exercise each day if possible, but does not need a long trail walk or field run each day.
>>Apart from that one day where she was like “tunnels? Never heard of them” she has shown me really great work in our training sessions.>>
That session was also great because it showed us that she needed an extra day or two to cement the tunnel learning before trying it again. That is why I am a big fan of NOT doing structured training every day! Every other day seems to make bigger strides forward in training. Counterintuitive to us as ‘operant trainers’ but completely in line with how the neuroscience of learning works.
They can get burned out if we train every day, or multiple sessions a day. Depletion is a real! I just finished hosting a 4 day seminar where my 15 month old pup had 2 turns per day… he was TIRED! So now he gets multiple days off with ZERO training. Less is definitely more, especially with dogs that are great latent learners like whippets. She has 5 sessions here on this post in the lat 24 hours or so, so now she needs some down time and no formal training sessions. You will be amazed at how much faster she learns!
So at the stage, the best thing to do is schedule time off on the calendar. Every 2 or 3 days, she should have at least one day off of any formal training. It is much harder for us humans than it is for the pups LOL!!
>>Today I got out the inflation and decided rather than throwing it for a retrieve, to just let her have it after some tugging. She laid down with it and shook it and chewed it but after about a minute, she did bring it back to me, climbing right up onto my chest (I was sitting). I was so happy! We tugged some more, I dragged her around (her fav) and then let her gave it again. She ran around a bit, then plopped. More chewing and shaking, then she approached me again with the toy! We did one last tug time then I let her have it and ended the session.
So even though I wasn’t throwing it, she was bringing it back. I’m hoping she’ll connect the tugging and fun with bringing it over to me.>>Sounds like decompression behavior – taking a moment to self-regulate, then bringing it back hen she is ready for more. So keep letting her have that moment because she will provide excellent info about how the session is going: hard? Need decompression? Easy? Doesn’t need decompression? And I also want the dogs to be able to self-regulate like that! Super!
Looking at the videos:
Rotated sends are going well! Try to add in a bit of ‘ready dance’ before each rep to get her even more jazzed up – then send her. That should get her driving to the basket even more! And you can also sue the toy for all of these too bow, she is much more excited by it 🙂 That way you can get even more acceleration to the barrel and add countermotion too by moving away before she arrives at h the barrel.The ‘away’ cue is off to a great start! She did well with you standing still, no problem at all so you can now add your motion. Be sure to have a line on the ground so that you continue to walk straight and not get magnetically drawn to the prop LOL!
Stays: Doing these with a toy is definitely fun for her! She has a little trouble moving into the sit with the toy in the picture, so you can add in instant releases for the sit with the toy in the picture: releasing to the toy the instant she sits! That can help speed up the sit when she is aroused. Since she is doing really well with duration and letting you move away, you can mix in throwing the toy back to her as well.
She is doing well with the rocking horses too! Looking at both videos, the toy is the better motivator for her 🙂 You can see how she runs to the barrels on the 2nd video, rather than trots to them on the 1st video (the cookie video). At this stage, try doing this with the toy as the reward, no more cookies 🙂 That will get her even more jazzed up to drive to the barrels while working the impulse control of ignoring the toy til the marker. Be sure to make strong connection as she exits the barrel, so you can also send to the next one with big connection. When you point ahead without as much connection, she sometimes gets a little ‘stuck’ on your hand, and a little less pointing forward and a little more connection should smooth that out.
Great job here! Now she gets a day off 🙂 to let the learning percolate and latent learning will work its magic!
Tracy
Hooray for warm weather!!
Good tugging before the session! And he was not leapy during the transition to the food – that is huge! Good boy!
He did leap as you walked away with the food held high, so try to make the transition them move into the training without leaving the playing field. And once the food came out, it was harder to get toy interaction so you can start the game when the food comes out. That will also be a more predictable routine for him in training.The session went well! You can start with a few parallel path reps without the rear cross, just to get things going and to get organized in terms of how to tell him to start. When you add the rear crosses, I think a clear “and now we start” moment will help. You can hold his collar and then play the ready game so he doesn’t start without you (he was not always sure when to start, so he sniffed a little when that happened and he didn’t get the reward)
Remember to reward even if he turns the wrong way (it was hard to see all the rewards especially on the first few reps). The next couple of reps got things rolling really well though and he was able to do some rear crosses! Super!! You can mix in parallel path reps without rear crosses, to keep him driving to the prop and not watching you after a couple of rear cross reps.
>>I put a 1lb weight in the prop. He did manage to still carry it off>>
Strong dude! I didn’t see him carry it off here (he did think about it at one point though). When did he make the decision to pick it up? Was he extra pumped up at the beginning? Or was it after a couple of misses? Let me know and we can sort it out.
Great job here!
TracyGood morning!
I am glad you are enjoying the sequences!!! And I admire your record keeping – it is inspiring me to do the same!
The sequences went really nicely! One thought that pops out: in rotation moments, you can decelerate and hold position, rather than moving fast through it or moving backwards through the rotation. Motion is motion, whether it is forward to backwards 🤣 so more decel and less motion and help get the turns even tighter!
Sequence 1 –
She did great with the distance work here!!The distances are really big, so she was going full flat which means the decel on the threadle to get the wrap exit needs to start as she is in the air over the previous jump (:11)
On the 2nd day video, at 1:13 you had been decelerated until she was heading towards 5, then accelerated so she made the turn on landing at 1:15. You can switch that – accelerate through the distance stuff (even if it means staying closer to the line) so the decel for the exit of the threadle is really obvious and she is not cued to accelerate before it.The BC at 1:19 was NICE! The distance skills made that look really easy!
Seq 2: Great timing on the FC! You can try staying nearer to the 4 jump and decelerating to get a little more collection, maybe halfway between the jumps there. And then remain in deceleration to cue the next turn – you rotated but you were moving fast so she didn’t collect a lot before takeoff at :36. She was not looking at the tunnel, she was just reading a lot of motion from you
Doing the opening as a serpentine at :54 –
She has strong distance skills so you can be closer to 5 when you send to 4. That way you can run more forward past the exit wing of 6 to show the line to 6, ideally being past it and on the new side before she takes off. At :55 she saw you moving parallel to the bar so based on that motion and where you were when she took off, she landed wide.Day 2
2nd run – nice opening, she found that line really well! You can be more laterally near jump 3 so you don’t have to run backwards. You were facing her as a collection cue, but running backwards is often a forward cue for dogs so that might be hard for her to process. On the 2nd run at 2:19, you were further across the bar of 3 and that was better already!At 1:45 you pulled her off the line to 5 by disconnecting and turning to 6. If you stop, you need to reward like she was correct (because she was 🙂 ) but it is better to just keep going. Your support at 2:23 helped her stay on the line a lot better 🙂
She found the backside after the tunnel really well and had a super nice turn too at 1:56! At 2:29, you had a lot of movement backwards in the rotation, so she had a wider line on the exit – that is a good spot to be further across the bar and decelerating in the rotation rather than moving back through it.
She probably needs a cue before the round backside verbal (like at 2:34) to her turning to the backside sooner . A backside push is a forward cue, so with the off course tunnel there too much forward can open up a wider line. Based on this set up, I think just a name call or easy is all she needs, and when she turns her head, switch to the backside verbal. That will also allow you to keep moving through past the exit wing and onto the exit line (like you did at 2:35) to set up a really strong ending!
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
The sequences looked really strong!!!! Yay!!!The first sequence looked super fast and super focused! Love it! You had great connection and that really helped. Her only question was about the threadle, as you already noted. Yes, it is a bit exaggerated 😁 but the foot rotation and big arm loop caused her to think it was a tandem turn/RC and she looked to her left at :18 and :27. So for the threadles, don’t turn your feet and just keep your threadle arm swinging back as if opening a door. If you keep moving along the threadle line, you won’t have to be cuing her to come in then another cue for taking the jump, she will find it on her own.
On the 2nd sequence: Looking smooth! The only small detail to consider is the timing of your ‘right’ verbal into the tunnel at :49. It was a little late (she was taking off) so she pulled the bar trying to adjust! Also, be sure you are upright and connected there – you were pulling away and bending, which blocks the connection.
3rd sequence:
Super nice opening – really nice job showing her 1-2-3-4 and she had great commitment! She was perfect about coming to the backside after the tunnel at 1:44. Be sure to keep moving and do the blind there as soon as you see liftoff (or sooner!) so that you can be finished with it and connected on your left side. I don’t think you have time to praise her, because it meant the BC tarted after she landed so she didn’t know which side to be on.
>>And I need some help keeping her out of that tunnel, please
Yes, that is the hardest part of the sequence! Making it look different from the cue or the tunnel (at :49) will really help – with the tunnel cue, you can be connected and accelerate. With the backside cue, yes be connected and also be moving towards the backside ump with a little decel. Eventually the verbals will be strong enough that he can do it only on verbals but for now, physical cues will help.
Also, you can add a break arm (outside arm to help with collection) and I would totally use your ‘right’ verbal there and her name. Start using it as she approaches the jump before the backside so that she can collect before takeoff. And keep calling her until you see her head turn to look at the backside jump. Then you can start your backside cue (but don’t say it if she is still looking at the tunnel).
One other thing to consider: start lines! There is a lot of pressure on the start line already, so be super consistent but don’t add pressure on the start line. She was moving forward on them, and you were fixing it a lot – but on the first run, released while she was moving forward (which reinforce it). You put more pressure on the other 2 runs and you can see her looking away from you a 1:31. So try to line her up (I don’t think a cookie in that moment helps because dogs often leave the stay after they get the cookie) and reward for now moving sa you lead out with the release forward or the reward thrown back to her.
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
This was great fun to watch! Sprite seemed pumped up but also having a good time 🙂 The lineups and stays looked great! Definitely a fantastic practice 🙂
Question: did you do any reps where she watched Blu “run a course” go over the jump a few times or something) and then she had to go through her routine? If not, that’s a good reason to invite Blu back for more play! And add a tunnel too, for both of them LOL!>>She went up the a frame then stopped at the top and crept down. Never did that before. But, the instructor was at the bottom with her dog out and another person was on the side close with her Aussie on a cot. So, I think it was unexpected and pressure.>
Yes – my guess is that she froze up with the pressure of the unexpected weird things. Because it was so weird, no worries! You can definitely expose her to a judge being close though, and moving (like squatting down for a good view, or running alongside) on the contacts – all stuff that she is likely to see.
>>She also had trouble controlling her speed on the DW during one sequence. She came off, stopped 4 on the floor then she backed up into 2020. It made me laugh>>
So cute!!! Good girl!! One game I play on stopped contacts is to the tunnel about 2 feet from the end of the board. Then get her excited, and challenge her to do the contact. Either she will stop 2o2o, or she will end up in the tunnel. It is super fun and also very black and white about whether she is right or wrong 🙂 I have video somewhere, I’ll dig it up!
Great job here!
TracyHi! I’m glad the chiro was able to get her back in alignment!
I agree, we want remote reinforcement to be a super fun game, so proceed slowly! Do get her super happy with tricks as you move away, and in different places. Bear in mind that this is just one of the games, so you don’t want to do it all the time 🙂 we still want plenty of rewards with you in the sequence especially the ball and great treats.
For the leash games – yes, have the leash as part of the lifestyle of rewards for not taking off when the leash comes off, and lots of reinforcement for the leash coming back on. This includes shaping her to put her head into the leash loop, and also sometimes putting it on, rewarding her, then taking it off and letting her run.
>>stepping on it quelled her desire to play “Game On!”.
Yes, stepping on it stopped her from moving away but it is also a pop on her neck, which is probably not too comfortable. And she is smart, so we don’t want her to learn to avoid you the pop by moving away faster 🙂
So yes, proceed slowly and keep making it super fun 🙂
Nice work!!!
Tracy
