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Hi! These went well and we have a really good idea of what JJ responds to in terms of cues: BIG connection and both hands nice and low, and very visible before she has to make a decision.
First side, up close to the wing – looked good! You added distance and faced forward more, which worked great, as long as she can see the cue before you both start to move. On the last rep, you showed the hand cue before moving and that really helped!
2nd video, from tunnel exit – yes, more motion really helped. Also you got your hands and connection in place beautifully on these 2 reps.
3rd video: As you mentioned, you were facing her a bit and that was more of a lap turn version of this. Still a good move to practice! I think you ended up facing her because that made more sense to your feet when there was not a lot of motion.
Backside was great!4th video, 2nd side
Adding more action! And when you add more motion and speed into it, be careful about converging motion towards the wing (that will push her to the other side). Keep moving forward on a parallel line to the one you want her to take.She is also starting to release on the hand motion, so be sure you are using a clear release. It can be the verbal for the cue (see below). You will want to show her the hand cues, start moving…. Then release.
At :48 – the hand cues were there after you both were moving so it was not as clear. The reps where she nailed it had the hand cues in position before you both were moving (or when she exited the tunnel).5th video: good first rep, from the tunnel exit!
When adding the tunnel, you can add a call for the turn before she enters or she will go blasting out the wing. The call was late here (when she exited) and you were stationary, so she had questions.6th video:
A similar thing happened at the beginning of this video: At :02, the verbals started at the exit of tunnel and your hands were completely hidden and you were not connected (turning forward)- so she took the other side of the wing (correctly). At :08, you showed massively different cue and she came to the side you wanted. Yay!!!!When a blooper happens, always assume it was handler error and not dog error, and reward or keep going. The reward is not contingent on whether she did what you planned it is contingent on if she did what your cues showed her. Stopping and not rewarding can be very very confusing to the JJ, who read you correctly but the stopping/lack of reward tells her she was incorrect. This can lead to slowing down, frustration, stress. If you are not sure if it was dog or handler error: reward anyway and then stop the session to watch the video in slow motion. If the video 1000% shows it was a dog error (this is highly unlikely 🙂 ) then one reward is not a big deal. However, on the flip side, withholding rewards or stopping when the dog was correct can quickly build undesirable behavior. So…. Reward her work even if it was not your plan.
The last video from the tunnel went well, and the physical cues looked really different so she was able to read the tandem versus the backside. Super!!!
So from the tunnel, try to add more motion so you are not stationary – keep moving forward on the parallel line. To help her know this is coming, start calling her when she is at least one stride in front of the tunnel entry, so she hears it (and sees the hands) before se goes into the tunnel.
Have you chosen a threadle wrap verbal on yet? You can add a verbal other than her name to it. If we treat these tandems like she is coming to the backside, then the threadle wrap verbal will be perfect. Or, if you treat them like they are a front side, then you can use as directional or a rear cross verbal.
Great job here!
Tracy
Hi!
Yes, something was going on with the tunnel. I don’t think you did anything different here in terms of volume or motion. Did anything happen before the session, like you told her she was wrong about something? Or were their weird noises in the environment that she was being sensitive to? When this happens, 4 things come to mind as possibilities:– something hurts – check her over and see if she is sore or painful anywhere
– something is weird/scary in the environment. Maybe she can smell or hear something that we can’t see. Here in Virginia, it would be something like gunshots (neighbors like target practice, ugh!) or coyotes nearby.
– false pregnancy – if she just came out of a season, depending how long ago it was, this is a possibility.
– something smells weird in the tunnel – it is possible that there is something in the tunnel that was gross or distracting.Adolescent brains can also just have weird days. So you can clean the tunnel and do different games for a few days, then move the tunnel to a different spot and try it again. Keep me posted!
Tracy
Good morning!
>>We were both a little tired in this video I think. I alternate working her and Nox, and this was her last turn. They only work for a few minutes at a time before getting a break, but I’m finding that she tires more quickly than Nox ever did as a puppy. I don’t know if it’s a mental or a physical thing (or maybe both).>>
That is a good observation! If Katniss is in the vicinity and can see Not working (or is on a station or something) what you are seeing a mental fatigue. Yes, her “training” sessions might be short but alternating is exhausting, mentally, because of the mental energy and bandwidth required to produce impulse control. I don’t ask my young dogs to alternate in a way that can be depleting: one will remain in the house while the other trains, and then I switch. They have a lot more mental bandwidth to devote to training that way.
I also don’t have my adult dogs nearby or watching or running around when I am trying to teach the puppy something. That is yet another pressure that the puppy needs to process, leaving less bandwidth for other things and leading to faster mental fatigue. I know that a lot of folks put that pressure on their young dogs early, but I see a lot of fallout from that in a way that make things a whole lot harder for the pups.
I do work specifically on alternating… but that is the only training and there are no other real skills being asked – just simple stuff that the pup is very familiar with.
The wing in your hair game went really well! It looks like she found the jump each and every time. Your connected was great! Yay!!! You can change your position to start really close to the wing and see if she can drive way ahead to the jump (feel free to add more distance between the wing and jump). Or, start a lot further from the wing and see if she can find the jump with you miles ahead.
The further from the wing you get, the more you will need your dog-side leg as part of the send – when you used it, she sent perfectly! If the dog-side leg was not moving forward, she was not sure if she should leave you to go the wing (like at :45).
>>Our biggest challenge was the toy. She is getting much better about bringing the toy back or at least to my general vicinity and then letting me walk over to play with her.>>
Yay! Keep working the toy play games! And also, be sure that bringing it back is sooooo much fun with more play, more toy throws, toy trades, etc. And watch what happens when you get the toy back: do you bring her right back to work and take it away and ask for more? That is what happened :31 and that is one of the things that causes dogs to stop bringing the toy back (party over, back to work so they start avoiding it).
The placed reward was enticing for her and totally works for this game – but keep it as the main focal point and don’t pull anything else out. You placed it at 1:27 but pulled something else out at 1:32, which changed the focal point so she did not go to the toy.
Great job here!!!
Tracy
Good morning!
>>Wow, I am really struggling with my dog side leg! >>
To get your leg more involved, play some wing games without your arms – have your arms behind your back 🙂 Maybe do it with Robie first because he won’t mind that we are doing weird thing hahahahahaha
I think this session of tunnel exits went GREAT!!! Your timing was terrific!!!! There was exactly one late verbal (the last GO cue at the very end, he was already in the tunnel) but the toy throw got him happy to exit straight. All of the other verbals were on time (aka significantly before he entered the tunnel) and that is HARD to do but you nailed it. YAY!!!
The left & right verbals at the beginning were well-timed and the physical cue supported them, and his turns looked really good! You had a moment or two of moving away from the wing wrap too fast, but you sorted that out really well.
The only wide turns on the right turn verbal were at 1:09 & 1:20: the timing of the verbal was great but the physical cue showed acceleration forward on a straight line… that is a conflicting indicator (my new favorite phrase haha). Voice said once thing and body said something else so he was running forward but looking to his right for more info. You will get a tighter turn there is you cue the right verbally like you did, and add in supporting it with physical cues like letting him see you peel away to the wing after the right turn.
Only one other small suggestion:
Keep saying go go go for the straight lines as he learns this. Your timing was good but you only said it once, so he looked at you on the tunnel exit.>>I won’t move on to advanced level until I get the soft turn better.>>
I think you can totally try the advanced level – your timing was spot on and you can add in that physical cue support. It is a fast and fun game which should be a nice balance for some of the more cerebral games LOL!
Great job 🙂
TracyHi! I know you mentioned you struggled here but I think it went well!!!
Yes, you did spins on the first few but then you caught it and got a lot of really nice blinds! One thing to be careful of is to NOT do a spin on the tunnel entry when you want a straight exit… we don’t want her to learn to ignore tunnel turn cues.
Your BC timing is coming along really well – at :35 and :45 nice timing! SUPER nice at 1:48! She is turning pretty tight here and it would be fun to try to decel into it, to see if she can turn even tighter 🙂
There were two bloopers that happened a couple of times:
At :48, 1:12, and 1:29 you took off with no connection back to her, so she took the other side of the tunnel Reward all of those because she was correct! You rewarded the first couple but then didn’t reward on the last one… but she was still correct 🙂 And while she is playing with the toy, look at the video to see if you were connected or not 🙂 When you were connected: perfect!! So remember to maintain BIG eye contact back to her on the side you want her to be on, as you move away.>>Starting to see a trend – I kept catching myself on her line so she really couldn’t even see the wing –
I think you might mean at :58 and 1:50 – it was hard to see if you were blocking the wing or not, but you were definitely leaning forward/looking forward… and your feet accidentally stepped to the tunnel so off she went. Good girl!
So even if you are not completely out of the way, keeping your connection back to her and not leaning forward with your arms forward will help her see wing and not the tunnel.Nice work here!
TracyHi!
>>I should have quit sooner.
You kept saying “one more time” lol! It was cracking me up LOL! You can set a timer for 2 minutes then be finished, or decide on 5 reps total.
To get the connection on the BC earlier and clearer, you can keep your arms in tighter to your sides. That will make the rotation quicker and so you can connect to his eyes even sooner.
His commitment was looking really strong! You can start the blinds sooner – when he lands from the middle jump and looks at the BC jump – do the blind. You were starting the blind just before takeoff or at takeoff of the BC jump which made it too hard to find the new side. You can go in one step less on the sends like you mentioned, but I think the main thing is that you can start the blind sooner and trust his commitment.
One other suggestion – you can be more lateral on the way to the blind: rather than run towards the BC jump (which also shows motion to the wrong end of the tunnel) you an stay in line with the middle jump so you are heading towards the correct tunnel entry and he sees a positional cue as well there.
.>Fun bloopers… my arms going everywhere on the one attempt. Putting in a reverse spin. Realize I am going in too far on my one step sends and then not getting down the line to do a timely BC.>>
They are hard sequences, so yes, there might be bloopers 🙂 Remember to reward him no matter what happens – like at 1:25 and 2:05 when you started after he took off so he didn’t know where to be – you rewarded but it was a while later.
Or at 1;46 when your opposite arm pulled him off the jump – he was correct! So it is really important that you reward him for trying to read the handling, even if it doesn’t go according to plan – assume all errors are handling errors so he was following you perfectly!He was very confident on the plank! Yay!!! You can take that little Cato teeter to different places, to help him get this happy anywhere he goes!
>>My thoughts due to his small size I would like a rock back on the end of teeter….>>
Yes – definitely a 4on behavior, and either a down or a bow at the end (which is a rock back) or a scratching behavior at the end. He was happy to be up at the end of the teeter on the mountain climber game – I think he can be further up the board (his toes right at the edge) and then you can get him to do a down or bow to rock back. To get hm all the way to the end, you can duct tape a target to stick out just past the edge of the board (I use a spoon LOL) and then put the reward on it before he runs up. I like something the dogs can lick, like a dab of cream cheese. That way he focuses on the end of the board and runs to it, so you can start to change your position or walk past the edge of the board as he is hanging out at the top of it eating his reward 🙂
Great job here!!
TracyGood morning!
>>I often use the wrong verbal and need to work hard to correct this. This goes for my obstacle cues as well as my reward marker cues. >>
For the verbal directionals, practice them before each and every rep so you have them ready before you run the dog 🙂 That will help sort them out! For markers – take a less-is-more approach. You might not need all of these markers – dogs make it easy for us 🙂
>>Take It, I deliver food to dog Yep, dog moves to me to take food>>
These are very useful!
>>Get It, I throw the food away from me and dog (sadly, I say “get it” for almost everything)>>You might find it easier to use Get It for toys as well, to mean “get the thing ahead on your line”. That way you don’t need an additional marker for that.
>>Catch, I throw food to dog (my new favorite deleivery since he’s getting so good at catching flying cookies)>>This can also be used for food and toys, because the context is so recognizable and we will never throw food AND a toy to the dog and ask them to figure out which it is based on the marker.
>>Chomp, I deliver toy to dog Tug, dog comes to me to interact with toy>>Is chomp a thrown reward, back to the dog? That can be ‘catch’ as well. One less word to remember!
>>Chase It, dog releases to both stationary toy or chases toy that I drag. I probably need to add a stationary toy marker.>>
I don’t think you need to add a stationary toy marker. Chase it can also be a ‘get it’ marker which indicates getting the reinforcement that is ahead of the dog (moving or not).
He did really well on the tunnel – wing proofing! Wow! He did not seem to even look at the tunnel when you wanted the wrap then was great about going to the tunnel when you cued it. Super!
He was reading your motion there, so now you can add in more emphasis on the verbals. Because the motion was happy before or simultaneously with the verbal, it was motion leading the way on that session. Since it went well, we can put the verbal before the motion by having you hold his collar, say the verbal 3 or 4 times, then let go of his collar so you can both start to move. By attaching the verbal before the motion, the verbal will predict the motion which then predicts the obstacle you want… so he then can get the obstacle and you can fade out the motion.
The set point is also going well. The first rep ws really good! His line up position on the 2nd rep was a little further back, so he was not as balanced – so that first position was the sweet spot with his feet just past the feet of the wing.
Good job mixing in stay rewards! Having the toy under the cone caused him to shorten up a bit, so it is better to either have it on the ground without a cone, or to have it as the moving target. What was the distance here? It might get a little wider as you add in the moving target 🙂Wind In Your Hair is going well! You can move the wing over to center it, so his line to the jump is straighter – it was a bit of a push back to the jump, which is why he passed it on one of the reps when your connection and verbal was not as clear.
For the next session, you can start closer to the wing so he can practice driving ahead of you. The placed toy was a little challenging, but helped him look forward so that will be useful when he is getting way ahead.
Smiley face also looked terrific – you were really emphasizing connection and that is great! The connection was pretty much perfect; the only spot to be earlier was after the spin at :40.
You can add in decel to the wraps here: as she is exiting the tunnel or exiting the previous wrap, you can decelerate before rotating, to help tighten up the turns. That decel will help her collect sooner.
She looks ready to move on to the tunnel exit games.Great job here!!!
TracyHi!
>>Should I toss it on the line she is coming in on or toss on the curve around the pillbug? >>
I think you can toss it away from the pillbox entirely 🙂 there is some pressure in this game (handler motion, the giant tunnel) so letting her chase the toy and move away can be a nice balance for that!
The set point session ended up well! I think at the beginning she had to process that you were combining the moving target and the set point, so she couldn’t quite get on the toy. The release was confusing for her at first! Changing toys and then doing it away from the jumps at first really helped, then she did great! Yay!!!
The next session will tell us more about distance, but this was really great to start it off!!!Great job here!
TracyRight! I think the more you do the deliberate practice you did here, the easier it will be to go faster and faster without having to think about it 🙂
Good morning!
She did really well here – it is a HARD game!! The wrap on the wing was easier, probably because the body position and lack of motion supports that. And the tunnel was harder, because of the body position and lack of motion LOL!! So to help with the tunnel, you can say the verbal a few times, then let go of her collar, then move to face the tunnel. That will help the tunnel verbal predict the motion to it, so she will cut out the middleman of waiting for motion 🙂 and just go the tunnel. You handled the little bloopers perfectly and she was happy to keep trying.
Great job making the verbals sound very different, and having a to of action when delivering the food rewards 🙂 I think she is ready for the advanced level where we add little sequences to this game 🙂
Tracy
Hi!
Yes, you are totally right, she was like WHAT THE HECK when you were sitting 🙂
>>Is there any reason I need to teach her from a seated position if she understands it this way?>>
2 answers for you:
For teeter training, it is good to be lower for this game to keep her head lower, which promotes a stronger weight shift as she moves the end of the teeter board.And also, it is great to get the dogs to offer behavior they can do even when we are in different positions: sitting, standing, dancing, jumping jacks, etc LOL!!! That way we are really seeing what they know and it helps translate the skill to a variety of different handler positions and moves.
So, separately from the teeter, you can take a behavior she knows really well and try it in different positions 🙂 And for the teeter, maybe try it in a chair! That can split the difference between sitting and standing, which she was very comfy with.
On the circle wrap video:
>>I tried to think really hard and lean in instead of out when going around the wing. I made an improvement but there were still some reps were I leaned back. It was much better though. >
Yes, for sure there is a visible difference in your motion! You did a great job of NOT stepping back or sideways. Your feet were moving a little which is fine (because it probably feels weird to come to a complete stop).
On all of the reps, you had terrific connection so she committed to the wing AND you were able to get right behind her tail to move to the next line.
Only one little blooper here – a tiny disconnection when you were coming back to the tunnel at 2:31 but you fixed it by ramping up the connection and she nailed it. Yay!!! You mentioned pulling her off one rep, maybe it was edited out because I don’t recall seeing it LOL!!
>>By the end of the session, she was dragging on the left but again, I still felt she was stronger on that side.>>
I think she was strong on both sides – she might have been slowing down later in the session because of the repetitive nature of the turns, so you can mix in fast and fun racing through the tunnels rather than all the circle wraps 🙂
Great job here! Take a look at the NextLevel Pup games and we can start teaching her those fancy moves 🙂
Tracy
Hi!
These are hard patterns and I think they are coming along very nicely!
1st 3 wing ladder went well! You were really focusing on connection and staying in motion! These were all blind cross exits but it went well.
One thing you don’t need to do as much of is use the opposite arm to indicate the ‘landing’ spot – that was delaying you a bit from moving up the line. You can indicate the push with your dog side arm then use connection to look at the landing spot, but you don’t need big arm movement to send or indicate the landing side.
>>I did not do as much sending as needed rather i started to work the wraps from the start side>>
There is an element of waiting on these, because we have to let the dogs get ahead of us before we can move again.
On the 2nd video, with the added speed of the tunnel, there was less connection. She was reading it based on motion but you can add in more connection back to her on the blind cross exits (and use less arm movement).
On the FC video:
The first rep had very clear connection! The more you work the connection like this, the easier it is for her to see which side to be on (and the faster you will get because you will feel more comfy with it :))On the exit of the first wing on the 2nd run – your arm was down but the connection was not there, so she went to the blind cross side (it looked like what you did on the 2nd video when you wanted the BC side).
When that happens (she ends up on the other side) – assume it was a handler error and either reward or keep going. Stopping/not rewarding is confusing for the dogs because they are correct. This holds true even if you can see her: seeing her and being connected are two different things 🙂 It is what the dog sees, not us, so always default to reinforcement or continuing.You had better connection there on the 3rd rep (1at and 2nd wing) On the 3rd wing, you pushed into her line before she was past you (:48) which pushed her off the jump.
The video of the other side was the same as the first FC video.
The first rep with the tunnel looked strong – emphasizing connection really gets the job done. I think you are using different verbals? But they are al backside circle wraps, so you can use the same verbal for all of them.
The reps on the last video looked good too! You are getting faster and faster, and keeping the connection clear (make sure you don’t block the wing :)) You started with a threadle wrap on the first wing here (she was between you and the wing, turning away) which is fine – but it is a different verbal (SO MANY WORDS LOL!!!)
Great job here! Keep practicing with the emphasis on the big connection and you will see it gets easier and easier!
Tracy
Super session here!!! She is very confident and thinking about her back feet. Yay!!!
Have you used a target for the 2o2o? I ask because it would be great to get her to back end up the board and front end just barely off it, so she can balance better as she rides the board down. A target will help get that when she is hopping on and also when she is backing up to it – right now with the backing up, you can’t sit any closer because then she won’t have room to come off the board – but when she does back up, her front end is stretched all the way forward off the board. And I don’t want to frustrate her by waiting for more backing up, so the easiest route will be backing up all the way to target position – the target as a visual aid will help.
Great job here!!
Tracy
