[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

The barrel sending looked really strong! She needed a warm-up rep on the first one, when she came back to you when you moved away quickly. So let her have an easy first rep then you can move to the harder ones. After the first rep, she was zipping around it at a million miles per hour LOL!! As you add the sideways and backwards sending to the barrel, add in using your arm to send as well. The toy can be in the opposite hand and the arm & leg closer to the barrel point to it. That will look more like what she will see on course.

The rear crosses are working well! She needs the cookie tossed close enough to the wall that she really can only turn the new direction 🙂 That gives you time to get the new side and gives her less opportunity to turn the other way. Most of the cookie tosses here were perfect so you had time to do the rear and she could only turn the new direction, which helps her to process it. The one cookie toss that was too far from the wall (and too close to you) made it easy to turn the wrong way and hard for you to get to the new side. So definitely keep using the toss to the walk to help her out 🙂

Nice work here! Good luck with the puppy show today!!! Get lots of photos!!!!!

Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

>>I’m struggling with when to move on to the next games vs continuing to work towards the more advanced versions. The games build on each other over time so do we need to get all the way to advanced level or move on, let the skills build, and come back to more advanced levels if we struggle later?>>

This is an excellent question!!!!

In thinking about it, it will depend on the individual puppy and how hard the skill is in terms of what is needed to be ‘successful’ at the advanced level.
For example: backing up requires a lot of development and coordination, so it is likely to lag behind the other skills and will take longer to get backing up onto something that moves. So you can re-visit it here and there, no rush, because we cannot rush coordination and physical development 🙂

Another example: the handling games like turn and burn or the games on the flat are a bit of commitment training for him, and mostly handling from you 🙂 So you might find that you get to the advanced level really quickly on those.

One thing about the levels, especially the advanced levels: nothing needs to be perfect 🙂 You can be ‘good-ish’ or ‘mostly correct’ 🙂 The advanced levels all get re-visiting somehow when we build up the baby level of a new game, so if he needs more help, we can always help him out. That way you can feel confident moving forward and even if the skills are not perfect at each level.

>>For example, we worked a more advanced level of back up to a large balance disk tonight.>>

That is really hard for most puppies! So if he needs more sessions spread out over time, no worries – it won’t hold him back from moving forward with the other games 🙂

Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

>>I think I am doing better on focusing on the process and making it as successful as I can for her.>>

You are doing a great job of that! Teenage dogs give us know choice to focus on the process 🙂 The videos are showing that you and Caper are making huge progress!

>> I wonder if having the walls of the indoor help her focus on the jump ahead but she sure thought it was fun.>>

I was trying to figure out what the differences could be versus outdoors at home. Fewer distractions indoors? Early puppy experiences there that bring her to a different arousal state? No cats? LOL!! We will never know, but we will embrace it as a fantastic way to get closer to the goals.

The throw back looked good on the first rep! You just need to reconnect sooner to show her the next jump. You did that at :42 and she took the jump. Yay!
I am pretty sure she went straight over the #5 jump then past it on the next rep through there because of the rewards previously for driving straight. Good job getting her back on track and breaking it down so she could look for it (and soon as you were like “Caper we need you to take this jump” she was great about finding it.

For the jump after it (jump 6) – you need a collection cue before 5 so she gets a pretty significant left turn to landing facing the next jump – otherwise she is on the backside line and would run past it to the backside, like she did a few times.

She did have a couple of questions about jump 1 – you need to face the takeoff spot of jump 1 more for the release to it. On. The very first rep, you were moving parallel to it which worked for her. At :24 and :33 you were turned away from it, so she did not even consider it. You can get to your lead out position and turn to face the takeoff spot before you release, then step towards it as you release to support that #1 jump.

She was terrific with the high arousal lead outs!!! he was able to ignore the reward station even though it was literally in the middle of things LOL! And she was VERY stimulated )sa were the other dogs) but she did a brilliant job of holding her stay and FINDING HER JUMPS. YAY!!!

Do you have snow on the ground? If the ground is still usable, it would be interesting to re-create this exact same session at home and see if we can get the same or similar behavior.

Great job here!!!

Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning! He was quite brilliant here!!!

He did really well with the 10 tunnel game to targeting on the plank. It is a really easy way to practice his contacts LOL! The best thing about this is that I didn’t really see him get overaroused. He was more excited, yes, but still happy and able to respond really well. That is part of the reason why he is doing so well with his FEO runs and is just about ready to run for real 🙂

I love that you did it with weaves too – it is definitely something all dog need to see and he was perfect.

And the stay on the last video was perfect. He did SO WELL here!! It is unusual that young dogs have no real struggle with this game, but he is perfectly fine with managing his arousal. YAY!!!!

So one thought to add to this: the only time I can recall him ever getting overaroused is when he is a little frustrated (handling goes wrong or something) and he jumps up at you (and there was a video with him jumping up at someone else a while ago).

You can directly address that with this game – 10 tunnels then a short sequence that you mess up and disconnect on purpose, and stop moving (don’t be your usually good dog trainer where you keep going or reward LOL). Do you remember the Find My Face game? It is basically getting him wild with the tunnels then doing that game, to see if he can regulate his arousal when he is frustrated.

Great job here!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!

>>They are sequences, not drive ahead, but Sid did drive ahead! AND he tried to pick up the numbers!>>

He did great! I watched them and commented in the order you posted them (but it might not be the order you ran them in).

What do you mean by pick up the numbers? Was he trying to run around with them LOL!

Looking at the videos:

Driving ahead 3 and 2 were posted first –
Really nice! He really liked the crouchy lead out on the Driving ahead # 2 video 🙂
Good job with the wrap verbal. The better & faster line for him will be to turn him on the slice (to his left) on 3 at :18 on the #3 video and :25 on the #2 video

Driving ahead video – really nice!!!!! On the #6 jump, you flipped him to his left and it was GREAT! He turned beautifully and you were able to layer the jump so get ahead of him to the last jump. Super!

On the last video – really nice opening here! At :16 on the turn from jump 5 to 6, he needed an earlier cue to come in and take 6. When he was taking 5, you said Go so he appeared to think you were wanting to layer the jump. If you call him as he takes off for 5 then keep calling him (along with the serp cues) then he will come in to the jump more easily. That way you can do. The blind if you want to, or have a smoother rear cross.

Great job on these! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!
I am glad your knee is getting better!

And yes, you can start a new thread – sometimes the apple products can’t process the volume of videos so they crash.

T

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!

She is already moving better here! This is super!!

The ‘catch’ game is a great way to work the stay without explosive movement. She was great – lovely stay! And you have very good aim with the cookie throws 🙂 She didn’t have to move to get it! I admit to laughing out loud when she caught the toy you tossed LOL!!! Good girl! When she is back to 100%, you can use toys and treats to release her forward out of the stay.

>>The head down trick is getting pretty solid

Please send video! I want to see the cuteness!!

Have you ever played the shell game with a dog? She might like it as a nose game: you take 3 paper cups, and while she is watching you put a cookie under 1 of them. Then slide them around and change the order… then ask her to find the cookie 🙂 It is a good mental game and fun too 🙂

Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi! She did really well with the tunnel here!

And adding in the verbal was easy peasy. Yay! You can more angles of entry now, and if that goes well you can start on the easy angles but add the threadle entry 🙂

Nice job here!!!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!
A question for you – on the start of the video, did you have treats or the ball with you, or was it all behind her? For now, have all reinforcement with you and we will leave the remote reinforcement and come back to it later. That way she can run without dragging a line, hopefully, because that can be weird feeling for her and also it might get caught on something. But also:

>>She is becoming more and more hesitant about performing certain obstacles. The current one is the tunnel!!! She is super insecure or something! How to make her more confident?>>

I can see that here for sure. When we have a drop off in behavior or thing backslide, even with a ton of reinforcement in a relatively straightforward environment, it is entirely possible that it is not a confidence issue, it could be some underlying pain issue that manifests as lack of confidence. She might have something that hurts, or possibly some underlying illness that is causing her to not want to do the obstacles (tick illnesses are something that are quite common and can totally manifest as a drop in speed or confidence).

I have seen this happen a lot over the years, with friends/students and also with my own dogs. Something medical is going on, behavior slides back, we can’t solve it with training – but we can fix it with figuring out what might be making her not feel great. So give her a quick break from training and see if you can get the vet to do some bloodwork (particularly a Snap test or C6 to look for potential tick issues. And do you have a soft tissue vet or PT who can check her over, to make sure nothing hurts?

An example would be that recently one of my dogs seemed a little ‘flat’ in training and competing. At a routine appointment, we turned up a positive for Lyme. We gave him doxy and voila! Back to normal. So whenever I see behavior change going the wrong direction and the dog avoiding things (like when she can’t be caught, or when she tries to scoot away at the start), we do medical tests first.

Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!

>>he walks slowly in a wide circle for just a couple of seconds and then drops it. >

And then you go get it? That is fine for now and we can start to shape the retrieve.

>> should I have another toy on me to run away with?

Yes and you can work the retrieve separately, in a toy races context: throw a toy, let him drive to it. Then just as he arrives at the toy, you can turn, run the other way and call him. When he starts coming towards you, you can reward with the 2nd toy 🙂 He might drop the first toy at that point, but that is fine for now 🙂 We will gradually have him bring the first toy closer and closer before you show him the 2nd toy.

Let me know how it goes! Feel free to get some video of it 🙂
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!
It was great seeing you last week at Brain Camp! You and both dogs were terrific 🙂

He caught onto the stays for the ‘catch’ reward brilliantly. You can add more duration and more moving away, as well as a cue as so you can tell him if you want the sit or down. You can also use a toy as the reward (throwing it back but slightly off to the side so it doesn’t hit him :)) I like using toys for this a lot because of the arousal state: more arousal makes for better memory when they are in that higher arousal state on an agility course 🙂

Leg bumps:
This went well too, he was very happy to chase the toy over your legs 🙂 He is ready for you to add in holding him on one side of you, then tapping the toy on the other side of you so he hops over both legs like a mini jump grid. If you have another person who won’t mind sitting on the floor, you can also add them sitting next to you, so he has 4 legs to jump over.

>>Re the Serp with food and toy. He has a harder time going to my right hand and then back to the left.>>

I totally see what you mean!! He was like: Must be the line up! You even tried keeping your feet closer together and he was like “ok, I will still try to line up” LOL!!

The other side was easy peasy for him, and he was totally getting the in-then-out behavior because you timing of the reward placement was spot on. So for the next steps, move to putting the toy on the ground (or an empty food bowl or a Manners Minder) a few feet away on the reward side. It is the next step to the game – it should be a good impulse control challenge on the stronger side, and might help with the differentiating between the lineup and the serp by giving him more of a visual target to draw focus away from the lineup position.

Tandem turns are looking really good! Super nice job being connected with your dog-side arm back, so he could easily see your connection and your turn hand. Yay! Both directions looked equally strong so you can now go to the next step, adding the prop for him to ignore on the way to your hands but touch after you turn and move the other direction.

Great job on these! He is ready for the next steps on all the games 🙂

Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

OMG look at her finding the jump after the tunnel here! Even when you tried to throw a treat on the first run, she was like NO WE GO TAKE JUMPS AFTER THE TUNNEL MOM! HA! Good girl! I am very happy with how well she was finding her jumps here! I am sure you were happy too!

She had a little trouble finding the middle jump (especially on the way to the threadle) but I think that was mainly because it is a complex handling cue that we have not really put into sequence yet. Great job breaking it down for her – the threadle is a good skill to have but not a super high priority (yet 🙂 )

>>I found that I was not ready to actually think and handle at the same time – Oh, my – I got a little flummoxed and was pretty late getting cues to her. >>

She forgave you LOL Your connection was strong and you didn’t let her fail a lot. Instead, you supported her and helped her out with the threadle, and kept going when she had the extra tunnel in the next sequence.

She experimented with offering to release herself from the start line on the first of the 2nd video (so helpful and kind of her to offer LOL!), but you declined to run when she did that and reminded her that it was not part of the plan. You did it in a way that she still maintained a really high motivation level AND did a GREAT stay on the next rep. Yay!

Holy sweet monkeys look at her whip around the line so you could EASILY get to the FC at :23!!! SUPER!!!

She will need a throwback or spin (and wrap verbal, it was hard to hear if you had that going) to cue the exit of that 6 jump – when you were facing it when she landed at :25, you were also indicating the tunnel so that is where she went. Good girl! Great job continuing and getting her back on the line and she found all of her jumps – especially at the end of the line at :31, where she had to adjust herself back to find the last jump (when it would have been a lot easier to run past it). SO LOVELY!

You turned away from 6 a lot sooner at :40 but she still had a small question about the tunnel (because you were facing it) but didn’t take it. She did run past the last jump here, but it was her only run-past blooper so it was probably that she needed you to turn towards the last jump sooner (before she takes off for the previous jump).

Overall, i’d say this session was wildly successful! It will be interesting to see if she can find her jump lines this well when you can be outdoors at Keith & Suzie’s place. You might have to do a lot of ‘find the jump’ games outdoors (maybe it is more distracting/stimulating?) and more sequencing indoors, then the 2 will merge together.

Great job! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

I agree, the first sequence looked great! Yay!!!

On the first run, you went it closer to 3 to support it, but I think she didn’t need the help, and that put you a little behind for the threadle 4-5. Good job with the turn cue on 4! For the threadle cue, see if you can keep moving through it so you don’t get left in the dust on the next line (and keep running til after she lands before pulling the toy out, to protect that last bar).

On the 2nd video, trying to find the sweet spot for how far away from 3 you could be was challenging, and also getting the threadle was challenging.

Looking at jump 3:
You were trying to add a little more distance from 3 to get closer to 4-5, which is great! The key will be keeping the connection and parallel path until she locks onto it, even if you are miles away 🙂
At :03 you had a high arm and that blocked connection, plus you turned to run to 5 too early, so it pulled her off of 3.
You were great at :25 – note the lower arm and eye contact, so she committed nicely!

Now to be able to get that commitment from further away:
The reps where you were closer to 3 were easy (like at 1:17). When you were further away with god connection, like at 1:44, she got it! So compare to :25 here and :09 on the first video – that low arm, big connection really helps, so you can do that from further and further away as you maintain the parallel line til she sees 3.

Looking at the threadle:
>>t seems that if I use my threadle arm to also send her to the jump after pulling her in, it works well. But if for some reason, I switch to trying to push to the jump with the other arm, we get the threadle but not the jump (or is it my motion…was I moving too far past the jump?)>

The threadle should be a single cue (verbal and arm) for the entire in-then-out behavior chain, that you maintain as she is doing it. By trying to pull then send her back, you were having to rely on timing and position, so she didn’t always get the info in time.

It sounds like “come” is her threadle slice verbal, which should indicate both coming in and taking the jump after it. So when you say the word and give the arm cue, you can keep moving towards the threadle jump like you did at :11 on the first video and at 2:35 on the 2nd video – no need to send her back out or say go, you can just keep moving towards it until you see her head turn to lock onto the jump (that is your cue to move to the next line). Part of what was happening here was that as you were pulling her into you, you were getting progressively further away from it which took that jump out of the picture.

One other nuance of the threadle… try not to turn your feet at all – keep them going straight. That makes the threadle (and the next line) easier to handle for you – but it is challenging to read for her because she has to choose your arm and verbal over your feet 🙂 So, using the 2 jumps as you broke it down at the end, you might want to walk through it at first then add more and more of your speed. A big dramatic upper arm rotation will help her see it too.

Great job here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

The backing up looked really good – very precise and no flinging as puppies sometimes do 🙂 She went step-by-step and that looked great! Nice job keeping it short and fun!

>>Got her to tug before doing the backing up session but let the play session go on too long at the end where she got distracted by a bit of cheese on the ground and then jumped on me.>>

One of my favorite things about video is we can track and quantify things. I am not sure she was distracted by the cheese as much as she was trying to regulate her arousal because the tugging had gone on for too long, especially at the end of a session even though it was short. On the video, the tugging starts at about :59 and she did well! At 1:15, she stops and looks up at you. At 1:24 she starts to sniff. At 1:30 she jumps up. So since we are being nerds about arousal regulation 🤣😁 I think that she has enough arousal regulation in her for about 8-10 seconds of tugging, then what happened was she was trying to self-regulate (first by stopping and looking at you, then 10 seconds later by sniffing, which is a great regulator). Then when the arousal continued (asking for more tugging) she jumped up.

Now this time frame might change depending on time of day, etc, but for now, get 5 seconds of tugging or so, then either move to the next reps or do a decompression moment of letting her win the toy or letting her sniff for some treats. The easiest way to do 5 seconds of tugging is to count out loud or sing it to her hahaha And we can use video to see how long her tugging threshold is, and how it expands!

>>I had stated to introduce “catch” with offered sits and downs last week but spooked her when my tossed cheese accidentally bounced off her head>>

Poor girlie!!! The cheese attacked her!

Your adjustment here was really good – it was still towards her, but off to the side and kind of behind her, so it was reinforcing and not spooky.

She did well with her stay here! You can add in more duration, as well as you standing up after she is in the down, as well as the down verbal.

>>I’m going to stick with the food version of this game for a bit.>>

Sounds good – because she is rolling her hip into a more relaxed version of this, the food is better because it is less explosive. The toy will be good to add in when you are ready to work on fold-back downs, where she drives in and out of the position (no relaxing :))

On the tandem turn video – tugging went from :07 to 24 approx and ended with a cookie transition, so she did not jump up. The turns went well and adding the prop went well too! Her only question on the prop was when it was on the way to your hands, so she was an overachiever and ended up hitting it on the way to you 🙂

One thing I notice here is that she drifts out a bit wide on the way into the MCH for the turn and I think it is because she can’t see the opposite arm until she is close to you and a little further away. The camera angle shows that your dog-side arm is a little too far forward, so it is possible that even though we can see your opposite hand from above, she cannot see it from below.

So you can make it more obvious by pushing your dog side shoulder back so she can see the opposite hand more, by pointing back to her with the dog side arm to open up that shoulder

You might want to do 2 hands in the cue (double magic cookie hands LOL!) for now, so she drives in close to you (like she did with the week 1 drive to handler using the dog-side hand) and then you can fade that to use the opposite arm only, on tandems and threadle wraps.

>>Plan for tomorrow is some goat Tricks and maybe the leg bumps since both should be easier for her brain.>>

Perfect! Rehearsal is great and easier for the brain, while she cements the learning of the harder stuff 🙂

Great job here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!

Nice job with the barrel game here! And it was good to add the verbals. I agree, he probably doesn’t really know what they mean yet, but that is fine for now.

He was having a little struggle in this session with wanting the toy, so he was chewing on your wrist a little before you let him go, then he didn’t bring the toy back at the end.

To help reduce the wrist-chewing, you can try 2 things:
– make a quicker transition to the thrown toy by starting really close to the barrel before you throw it, then when it lands, send him directly to the barrel. Even a few seconds or trying to move him a little was hard for him.

– you can try placing the toy down rather than throwing it, then you can move to the barrel with him (using cookies to reward) him moving with you. That might not be as exciting as throwing it, but we might not need as much excitement if he is having trouble being held when you throw it 🙂

>>he ish is for the occassional ass pass:

The accidental blinds where when you started running forward without looking at him (you were looking at the toy before he knew which side of you to be on) and that is exactly what the ass pass cue looks like 🙂 You can see it at 1:25 – as he was rounding the barrel, he only saw your back so he had to guess.
To get rid of the ass pass when you don’t want, be sure to make a BIG eye contact with him as he goes around the barrel but keep moving. That will get him on the correct side of you.

Looking at the toy races… I think he is looking at the cookies in your hand (or hand near pocket, if the hand and pocket were empty). Cookies seem to be slightly higher value at the moment as we can see from the lotus ball toy races, so you can separate the toy races from the cookies 🙂 Using a barrel to start is great because then you don’t need the cookies.

>>I tried the beating him to it and stealing, but maybe I’m a bad thief and a lousy tease (will try again!).>>

Or, there might have been cookies in your pocket or nearby, and he is starving. LOL! So for now, you can keep the driving ahead for the toy in an environment where there are no cookies, then we can build them back together.

Strike a pose went really well! Your mechanics were good, no monkey dances happening 🙂 My only suggestion is to point your feet to the reward hand, not to the target hand, to show him the direction you will be moving on the serps and threadles.

He read the setup really nicely: You presented the treat a little too quickly on the 2nd rep so he did the full behavior without hitting the target (but is eventually where we go anyway, fading out the target hit 🙂 )

When you switched hands, I think the cookie hand was really obvious (and he had just gone to that hand) so hitting the target was hard (moving it really helped!) The other reps on that side looked really strong.

The lap turns looked great – he was able to drive right to the turn hand and then hit the prop. Love it! You can now try it with an empty hand: the empty hand does all the cues and turning so he is more likely to look at the prop after the turn, then the other hand can hold the cookie and throw it after he hits the prop.

One thing I notice here and also with the strike a pose game was that the first rep on the next side was hard. So you can break the session in half: do one side, take a tug break, then switch sides. That way he might not be thinking about the side he was just working on, and more likely to get the first reps on the new side correctly.

I am sure the tandem turns will go well too, he is ready to see those.

>>I’m going to be working on the shaping a toy retrieve that you posted, I really hope it helps streamline the sessions instead of me doing monkey dances to get the toy back.>>

Yes, those will be fun to shape! And also, when using a thrown toy, you can reward him with another toy for bringing it back. Retrieving can lose value if they bring it back and we take it away. We might be thinking about starting the next rep, but they might see it as a punisher for bringing it back… so they don’t bring it back as well. Using a reward for bringing it back and get the retrieve going really well without begging or monkey dancing 🙂

Great job here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

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