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Hi!
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I think as soon as he understands that it is a magic cookie area, he will be happy to partake!
>This is kind of what barn hunt is for us and I think we might start scent work as my husband is interested in training Ronin in that if he can’t get rehabbed enough to do agility. Even if he is, we might do that anyway!>
Fun! And even though nose work is a relatively ‘new’ sport, there are some cool studies about how it is really great for the dog’s brain and body!
>And regarding the mats, it’s interesting you think he is shorter strided on them. He’s not very fast and they feel pretty sticky to me so I’m surprised at that idea but certainly not discounting it. >
It is something I have seen a lot and since a lot of your MaxPup classmates run at this facility too… I see it in their striding as well to varying degrees. You probably won’t see him slip. You will probably see him shorten up and slow down (my Elektra is like that).
> I would consider trying to go back up at On the Run to train again like I used to, but this location and timing and instructor works out so well for me I’m not sure that will work. >
It is a hard call – yes it is convenient and the instructor is good, but if he is rehearsal unwanted behaviors then you’ll want to pursue other options.
>I was wonderfully oblivious until one time Reacher choked on a Zukes that he’d eaten out of a Lotus ball and it fell out of his mouth and it was like the air got sucked out of the whole place. I was like “What? What’s wrong everybody?” and then I got the talk about how next time I’d have to pay $50 for that. Eeek. Sorry no that’s too much pressure when it wasn’t like I intentionally threw the Zukes on the floor or a big thing of cheese or anything. >
UGH this story crushes my soul. I was hoping they would chill out about the food there but at this rate, they are going to end up limiting the people who want to be there. Not good at all!
>But on to some video! So yesterday’s training class was pretty interesting. I tried the teeter again with someone standing kind of close by. He bailed again. But now after watching the video I do not think it’s the proximity of the human that’s the issue. But will be curious to see what you think.>
Hard to know for sure: the ‘judge’ was right there then she got weird by freezing and turning away, that is just strange behavior and the dogs know it LOL! You can ask people to just act normally when they are nearby LOL!!!
He did seem to be looking at her but it may or may not have anything to do with the teeter question. The thing to try is a teeter with no one around and see what he does.
>So based on the fact that he hopped off the side towards the person, and even wandered closer to her I am not sure that’s it. I>
He might have been trying to check out what she was doing or who she was.
> Maybe there is pain. >
This is also a possibility – the teeter is one of the last obstacles the sports vets add back after rehab for injury, because there is a lot of slam on the dog’s body. The times I have experienced regression on the teeter have been pain-based: one dog had a UTI, one dog had a luxating patella. Got the medical issue taken care of and then there were no more teeter issues. And I have certainly seen other pain-based issues in other dogs crop up.
>I’m trying to get massage this week and we have chiro on Saturday. He has no regular vet appts until Oct. but if I need to do mid-year check up of course I will. >
Might be worth it, because he is a good age to do baseline bloodwork and x-rays of the hips/spine/etc.
>But…I may have them check that teeter because another dog in class (an Aussie) who is solid on the teeter did it, but I noticed he was really looking at the floor at the tipping point both sides like he thought about bailing.>
Yes, if it tips too slowly or moves weirdly, the dogs will start bailing!
>The first part of the video is a bit of our warm up and I was getting him a little excited and there was an exciting dog in the ring so he might have gotten a little too wound up. I kind of didn’t care because he was barking more.>
He was definitely pumped up! It sounded like some of the barking was ‘yeehaw!’ And some of it was alarm barking? But I don’t really know his ‘voice’ all that well 🙂 If you feel he is tipping over into overarousal, you can add in a pattern game to balance him back to optimal arousal.
>Regardless, I’ll be curious to see what you think about this, but thinking to do only teeters at home for a bit and start back at the beginning of the training plan for with it barely tipping, etc. and see how he does.>
Yes, but clear any potential pain issues first – training at home if there is pain will make things worse, so we want that to be clear before adding more training.
>Then, he did a nice dogwalk contact but could not get that weave entry. Tried again later and still didn’t get, so we quit with weaves again too. Seems we stopped weaving and now the teeter. Either young dog weirdness or pain or something else. Need to get to the bottom of it either way.>
There was a jump right on the other side of the weaves – maybe that is a visual he has never seen? But also yes – weaves and teeter are very hard on the body so there might be something going on. He was really doing great in the weaves so to have both the weaves and teeter disappear are cues for further investigation.
Keep me posted!
Tracy
Good morning!
Having a strong stay so you can get the food into the bowl is awesome! And the reward was visible for most of it (it was out of frame when the jumps were angled, but that was no problem).
She was consistent and smooth with her mechanics here, both with the straight jumps and angled jumps. Super!!!! What was the distance? She can do a slightly bigger distance, I believe.
>Was using food and she seemed blah so I put a toy out and she was like wtf you want me to do with this so I went back to the bowl lol.>
I think the ‘meh’ feeling you got was because the food bowl was a little close and it was stationary… so she was actually decelerating, preparing to stop, rather than powering through. Definitely get the targets moving as soon as she shows understanding of what you want, even if that only takes 1 or 2 reps. You can use a dragging toy, or you can attach the food bowl to wheels and drag it 🙂 You’ll see her really power through! Fun!
Nice work here!!
Tracy
Hi!
Either one is a good next step, they have all sorts of stuff appropriate for her level (and higher level stuff too :)) CAMP is only offered in the summer, and the MasterClass can be done whenever 🙂
Have fun!
TracyYay for the coordinates! She was definitely moving better!
There were lots of failures on jump 1 – remember to make things much easier if you get 2 failures, to keep the rate of success really high. It was hard to see what exactly was happening at jump 1 (she was just outside of the camera view) but when you are too far ahead and and moving into the release pretty quickly, she avoids the first jump – that is a consistent thing so lead out less, stand still for a few seconds, really connect, then release to set her up for success.
>Good news is she did the big loop exactly to my handling. >
Yes but also there was a moment early on where she came off the line a couple of times. I think that has to do with jumping mechanics more than handling, so you can set up speed looks where you basically trot or job along and reward her randomly for finding jumps. Start with a lower bar if needed (and also keep pursuing xrays etc to make sure there is nothing going on – she is moving MUCH better on grass but still avoiding jumps so you will want to be sure you’ve looked at all the options).
>On one part I was too far behind and she cut in and didn’t take a jump and another one I think I was too much on her line so she went around. >
Yes, you can work on her having a better understanding of staying on the line but those spots looked more like she was struggling with mechanics a bit and pulling off the line.
>One of the reps I had her take jump 5 and wrap back to me.>
Yes, that was super nice!!! And she is totally moving a lot better on grass.
> So she’s really trying hard to listen and watch my cues…I felt like the wrap back to me I was actually timely and she did it so nicely.>
Yes, I agree that she was really listening to the cues and it looked great!
>I’ll wait to hear back but I’m really just debating not trialing her on mats anymore. >
I agree that her form is very different on the mats, and that is not a good thing at all – that is where frustration and injuries can happen!
>I don’t want to keep rehearsing that at trials when I can’t fix it. >
>>However I would like to keep taking class there because it’s the closest thing to me in the winter. Plus we can work on it then.>>I agree that you don’t want any rehearsal and the other thing to note is that you can’t fix it in training on the mats either… you might end up just teaching her how to jump with poor/restricted form or frustrating her by stopping her a lot to bring her back to do things. She was getting a little stressed by that at the trial. So the only possibilities would be to see if you can wrap her feet over the pads enough that she has more grip and can move normally. And if not? You might need to find alternate winter training (turf for example) – even if it I less regular, it is better to have fewer sessions with good footing and mechanics than to have more sessions on poorer footing and rehearsals of unwanted mechanics.
Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
>Had the BEST weekend so far with Wayne and agility!>
Yay! This is awesome!!!!
>Overall he was a rockstar, but we did find a few triggers I need to work with him on.
For those triggers, how did he do with the volume dial games/eating food? You can also do pattern games, because those can really help him regulate the arousal changes he had when encountering the other dogs.
>Several times he looked over to the other dog leaving the ring and Wayne was definitely overaroused. Several times I struggled just getting him off leash because he was so amped. >
Before taking the leash off, if he is locked onto another dog, you can ask for a simple behavior like a hand touch or following you with a bit of ‘shadow handling’ or a high 5, whatever he likes to do that can help break him out of looking at the other dog.
Plus, it was SUPER QUIET in there which probably made the barking of high arousal dogs stand out even more to him. It might be easier to ignore them in noisier trials.
>We also had an on course distraction with a dead lizard in the dirt…LOL!>
Ewwww! LOL!!!
>His 2nd run on Friday he hit his first ever 6 string of weaves in flow and in trial! >
This was great! He got right into the weaves there like a professional!
>Over the 3 days he successfully hit 10 our of 12 sets of 6string weaves!>
Wow, good boy!!!! The weavers run looked great – he got his poles really well and also found his lines really well. Super!
>His other big accomplishment was the dog walk (remember I commented on this in our last zoom) He attempted the DW on Saturday and made it about 2/3 the way across the top and stopped and bailed off. First run on Sunday with a DW he took the whole thing and hit the contact!!>
It is great that he is feeling good about getting right on the dog walk!! Yes, we don’t want him jumping the contacts but I am happy with his confidence in terms of getting right on the obstacles.
Congrats on all of the success – the Q is nice but the other stuff are all BIG WINS and very exciting for the future!!
Tracy
Hi!
>So next time, hands down, mostly. Eyes on dog eyes. Move! Trust!>
Yes – trust, connect (because it is an important part of the cue), and use your arms to run not point 🙂
> I’m happy with the progress she has made in the last few trials. >
Me too! Significant improvements!!
>Oh, absolutely on the caffeine! Two cups, strong and black, every morning!>
Coffee is the key to success in agility, in my opinion LOL!!
Have fun!
TracyHi!
>My new mantra is “he’s doing the best he can with where his brain is taking him” so it’s up to me to help him do better. As much exposure as I can to new and novel sights and situations. >
Yes, that is exactly what he needs! He gets better and better as you continue on this path.
>Have him entered in a seminar this Thursday – topic is stopped contacts, something that he does have in his toolbox. I did that on purpose, taking a skill he has to a new location with new people.>
That is smart! The skill doesn’t have to be challenging when the environment might be challenging.
>Motion is tough for him – wait until everyone is settled before bringing him put and setting him up.>
Yes, coming in when everyone was walking out is hard! So if possible, especially at a trial… wait til everyone has settled before bringing him in. But since that is not always possible, bringing him in early and doing tricks for treats (for now, eventually without treats) will help him get used to people moving.
>When I lost him at the start line, it was to a new dog in class standing up by the fence line – he needs to check out new so I just have to always be aware of that.>Yes – but also remember that the transition at the very start is a hard moment for him (and for all dogs!). He was focused til you threw the leash away towards the ring edge… that drew his eyes directly to the new distraction and off he went. He is sensitive to how long it takes and also to the leash throws, so try to get the leash off fast and just drop it next to you rather than do big long throws that might cause his attention to follow the leash.
>Reward reward and reward – all errors were mine. Stopping a sequence without rewarding will lead him to check out.>
Yes, this is an important one! I think the most important thing is to NOT stop. Just keep going even if he is off somewhere doing something, or if you have to make up a sequence. For example, when he went to follow the leash/see the other dog, you called him back, reached for him… and he was a little unsure about coming back. Instead, just start the course without him and run an invisible dog. Just ignore him til he rejoins you then keep going and reward when something goes well.This can happen on court too – handler error, dog error… doesn’t matter, the run never stops. Then you can reward when something goes well!
When you were a little late on the blind and stopped and walked away, he was struggling to stay motivated. So always keep going no matter what 🙂
>We have a couple of trial runs this Saturday. My plan is to pick out some short 4 or 5 obstacle courses and run them. I’ve got to hold myself accountable for sticking to the plan! What usually happens is I get to the line, say we got this and run the full course – overconfidence or denial? >
I think our brains mess with us: the course looks very doable compared to what you do in class, so the training plan gets abandoned… but that doesn’t help him. Yes, hold yourself accountable and make it a great experience for him.
>This time maybe I shouldn’t walk the full course LOL.>
I love this idea LOL!!! Just walk the section you are going to do 🙂
Nice work here! Keep me posted on how the weekend goes!
TracyHi!
He did super here! Yay! He seemed to have no questions about finding the jump with the tunnel there.
You can throw the toy sooner on the reps where yo are not turning to the tunnel, so he can continue straight on the line and not curl in towards you – try to throw the toy as soon as you see him lock onto the jump.
And since he did so well, you can start cueing the turn to the tunnel sooner: when he is approaching the jump during the layering, but before he takes off, you can start the FC to the tunnel and see if he still commits to the jump.
Great job!
TracyHi!
The Go reps look good! And so do the RCs. That first RC is a left not a right, you caught yourself after the fact LOL But good RC line so she read it anyway on the RCs.For the backside wrap:
Throwing the toy to landing was good – she was getting to the correct side of the jump but then was not sure what to do with herself. As you move forward past the wing, you can help her by looking back to the landing spot and throwing the toy there. You hung out on the landing side longer on the last rep (3:20) but you will want to keep moving through and throwing the reward to the landing side so she doesn’t rely on your being there.
>I added the barrel for a reminder for the back side wrap. I don’t even remember training it in level 1>
Having the barrel in for a couple of reps is fine, I am not sure it helped more than the reward placement on the landing side but either way you got some good reps in. Now… fade it out asap 🙂 because it can get caught a a lure/aid for jumping form that is hard to fade if you leave it there too long.
Nice work here!!
Tracy
Hi!
>I cheated a little and had the favorite toy as the one I threw lol but he seemed to get it pretty well!>
Ha! That is not cheating, that was smart training. Otherwise, he might have just locked onto the toy on the ground.
The session went really well! He was not even looking at the toy on the ground on the first balance rep where you went straight: awesome!!! He looked at it a little on the 2nd go rep but that was mainly because your toy throw was a little late and he was not sure where to look.And by comparing the go line with the RC (like the last rep), it looks like he is truly reading the RC line! That last rep was a really strong rear cross and it was created by him following handling, not by the toy on the ground. Super!!!
You can start playing with all of the wind in your hair skills in one session: go, rear crosses, FC wraps, backside wraps. That will keep both of you really locked into the handling cues.
Great job!
Tracy
Good morning! Was this her first session? I thought it went great! It is a pretty weird/hard skill and she was happy to go do it.
You can give her a bigger visual on the jump to lock onto – I think the low jump bar might have visually gotten a little lost with all the other stuff there plus your motion. A big jump bump will pop more visually, so she can probably find it more easily.
When she was running past it on your left side, I think it was because you were going fast so she was going fast, and the visual of the dog walk might have drawn her past it a little.
Since we don’t want to move the dog walk and we don’t want to add extra handling, you can send to the start wing from further away on that side and do a slow jog rather than run up the line.
Also, rather than a go verbal (which she might be interpreting very literally as go straight even if there is no obstacle :)) you can use a jump verbal and see if that makes more sense to her.
She did great on the other side, there was only one drift in between the jump and the tunnel in the video (:51). She might have come off the line as you started looking forward and getting ready to throw the toy. The other reps were strong!
Overall, this went really well so for the next session, do a quick warm up like this then open up the tunnel to add that visual and add the advanced level.
Great job!
Tracy
Good morning! She is definitely getting the idea here!
>She tends to jump at me a lot while she turns away. >
One small suggestion that I think will really help: as you move your arm back to start the turn away cue, let your eyes follow your hand as it moves, rather than look at her. That will draw her focus down to your hand as your hand leads her through the turn, which also turns your shoulders to the line. When you look at her, it keeps your shoulders straight so there is less info on the turn cue for her to follow.
>less motion from me. >
Yes, that is the other thing that will help – as you decelerated more during this session on the video, she got better and better. The arm and leg movement should be relatively slow for now because going too fast or trying to do a quick hand flick doesn’t give her time to process the cue. She followed the cue really well with the hand movement going slow and low 🙂
Nice work here!
TracyGood morning!
He did really well with the flatwork rear crosses! He is getting the idea and that is also helping with the RCs on the jump.
>He has a really hard time working when he knows the toy is on the ground somewhere else.>
Yes, the toy on the ground is hard but it really helped him direct his focus to the line you wanted. Super! You might have to put it a little further from the wing, it looks like he turned really well on the last rep but plastered the wing trying to get to the toy.
It looks like he had trouble going to the start wrap with the toy on the ground, so you can exaggerate the cue by using a big step to it (and you can be closer to it) so he goes to it (even with the toy on the ground on his mind :))
With the toy on the ground:
You can add in balance reps: Have a 2nd toy in your hand or pocket. And, even though the toy on the ground is on the RC line, you can cue him to go straight. That should take him past the toy – it will be hard! But he is a smarty and can do it. Then when he goes straight, you can give him a toy from your hand or pocket.
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
Jumping went really well! I think a lot of the dogs are having trouble really opening up on that footing – adding strides and dropping their heads sometimes. I see it on the other videos and saw her do it a little here too in a couple of spots, so be careful of running her too much on the mats if she has to adjust her striding.
>I didn’t intend the extra jump after the first tunnel but misjudged how she would carry out that far (yay Girlie!) >
She is driving out of tunnels really well, so give her clear info for a turn if you want one, while she is still 6 feet away from going into the tunnel. I think there was an unintended jump after a tunnel towards the end too – so you can stay closer to visibly set the line too.
>Faster after her food box snack but not sure how much was the food and how much was chasing me into the next line without needing to sit for a leadout.>>
Could have been the food but also she does love to chase you!
Congrats on your first Q! Yay!
>Had a short debate about sitting on the startline but it worked out. >
She sat as soon as you asked, even though it was not exactly facing the jump LOL!! But it was good to just lead out rather than mess with it, and she did great.
>Hard to tell in the video but I think the turn to the left when I was cueing her check check for a wrap right had to do with how I was decelerating and perhaps pushing slightly on her line so she read it as a RC. >
Ye, could have been that – from the angle of the video, it didn’t look like you were pushing in but also it is a tight line there so maybe your cross put you on the RC line? Either way, you were connected and helped her, so it worked out well 🙂
>So proud of her completely ignoring the leash runner moving at the end as we ran to our leash.>
Yes! She was all business, ignoring all the people. Super!
Sunday SS:
>Stefanie wanted the next dog in the ring early so I carried her in. Then the CKCS handler ran out of the steam at the end and took a while to get her and her dog over to the leash so we were waiting for a bit. I don’t have carrying her in down for our routine so I forgot to give her some time to shake if she wanted to>
It was definitely an unexpected wait…. but she was on fire in this run! Fast and sassy but also really listening!!!
>then completely didn’t cue the right turn out of the tunnel until after she exited driving to the finish jump. (whoops!)>
Yeah… oops. LOL!!! It is great that she is driving out of tunnels on a line, so adding more turn cues will help. I think sarting with a stay would have helped here, so you could set up a turn cue. But it is fine to get the E so you don’t have to move up out of Novice SS any time soon. Novice is fun!
NFC Jumping – you really do a great job of staying calm during the transitions in and out of the food box, and into the next sequence. So many people feel rushed (myself included) but you were calm, cool, & collected so you accomplished your goal of 2 fast and fun sequences. She did great!
>While she was happy about running, I felt like she was hitting the end of her rope brain-wise (me too) so we scratched Snooker.>
That is always good – a tiredness creeping in? Better to just scratch 🙂
>I think I need to experiment with unclasping her martingale slip lead instead of taking it off over her head. I am wondering if she would prefer that and be more inclined to line up faster with it not messing up her ear fur.>
Possibly! It is nice when the leash just drops away rather than go over the head! Definitely something to experiment with and see how she feels.
> I haven’t been unclasping it because I have to then reclasp it so it’s ready for the end of the run and the reclasping can take my attention off her a split second, but maybe I should unclasp it, let her shake/move around, cue a spin and clasp it as she’s occupied with the spin. Or something like that.>
Yes – you can re-clasp it right after you take it off, as you are talking to her or cueing the spin. Or, you can re-clasp it at the end as you pick it up, that will only take a second or two and I don’t think it will be a problem for her.
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
>Well, we are really getting there! >
Hooray! She is doing really well!!
Looking at the first video:
>The second run was Standard. Which is the first video. It was a good video to contemplate with before the next day. Though she did Q, I know I really messed her up. Stopping, instead of letting her go, she also stopped, back jumped, so OC. >
Yes, that stop is where she had some questions. But you were moving well on the rest and that huge straight ending line was GREAT!!! Most dogs would have curled in off the line and she kept going really well. She also ignored all the ring crew and the judge!
>Friday, Jumpers, was a rather disconnected run with lots of ring crew visiting. She did get through the whole course, but way over time. >
If you have video, check to see if you were stopping a lot on this run, or if you were staying in motion. For now, staying in motion is more important than running the course perfectly, so if she passes something no worries: keep going.
>I took an ibuprofen, got some sleep, changed shoes the next day to my Saguaros (yeah, who knows… maybe it helped).>
Ibuprofen, sleep, and good shoes are 3 of my top 4 go-to fixes in dog sports! Caffeine is #4 LOL!!! And don’t underestimate the power of good shoes – our brains keep our bodies moving better when we trust the footing more.
>Her next run, our last of the day, Standard. She did not Q, but it was a fun run for us both. Just as our class started the sky got black, the wind was whipping, and radar showed a serious thunderstorm on the way. We were the last one. It was thundering as we went in. I knew we need to pick up the pace! >
OMG! You can hear the weather whipping around on the video! Eek!
>The first OC, I really thought was kind of a tunnel trap for a novice (L1) class. I was supposed to be the dw, jump, jump. I didn’t care that she took the tunnel in front of her. In her mind, the right thing to do. Good girl. I did, however, give her a, “choochoochoo”, hoping she’d come into the jump. >
Yes, that was definitely a tunnel trap! A brake arm helps with those types of turns: along with the choochoochoo verbal, use both arms to cue the jump. That will get her turned and not in the tunnel.
And for the spots where she missed the line after a tunnel – that was a connection question. You were looking forward and pointing forward, which pulled her in off the line. Ideally, you would be look directly at her as she exits the tunnel because that will turn your shoulders to the line you want.
>We will be going back to the same site in a couple weeks. Since her confidence level grew all weekend, good to return to the site. We do trial there a lot. >That is great! Looks like Sugarbush? I always loved trialing there when I lived in New York.
>Also, while waiting we did lots of pattern games, and some tricks. All happily. She does get excited watching the dogs before her, which bodes well. >
Overall on the videos, I thought that she looked a lot more relaxed and comfortable in the environment, which contributed to all of the success. Super!! Great job here!
Tracy
