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Good morning and sorry for the delay! I was experiencing “travel adventures” trying to drive home from Minnesota which added an extra 24 hours to the drive. Eek!
Thanks for the videos, they are very helpful – I have ideas for you! There are a couple of things we can clarify for her but I don’t think we need to go that far back to do it.
One thing that will really help is a consistent marker that tells her that she can grab the toy in your hand. She might think that the toy in the dog-side hand moving near her is the cue to take it… so she is really focused on it. My dogs all went through this in their training so I clarified their marker cue – I use “bite” for when I want the dog to grab the toy, and the toy is not available until they hear ‘bite’. This helped ENORMOUSLY 🙂 I had to be very consistent early on and then they figured it all out so I don’t have to be as consistent now 😂 I let go of the toy as soon as their mouth is closing on it because young dogs will come in ‘hot’ to the toy – and if it is a smaller toy (to be slightly less visible in the hand) I don’t want to get any accidental hand chomps.
Basically, the marker teaches them to ignore the toy completely and focus on the work. Then when they hear the marker, they can grab the toy.
>If I send with the toy in the hand closest to her, it is too big of an ask.>
Looking at the first video: I see 2 examples of where we can clarify the toy stuff with a marker.
At :20, you switched the toy to the opposite hand (which draws her attention to it) and then didn’t get connection after the wrap, so she ended up on the wrong side then went to the toy because it was moving and right in front of her.
At :52 – you had better connection after the wing wrap! You had the toy in the dog-side hand for tunnel send and she was heading to it. Then there was a small disconnect as you turned away so she went with the toy because the tunnel cue was not as clear.
Yes, clarifying connection will help of course but more importantly, clarifying when the toy is available will help her focus on the handling and obstacles. The toy is exciting but we can shift her focus from it and emphasize the obstacles more for sure.
>And I night be overthinking since my background are my soft Vizslas>
I think part of what you are seeing versus the Vs is that Rou has to really get lower to get into the tunnel (she is probably a bit taller than them and also built differently) – and that collection to get into the tunnel requires her to slow down.
Also, she is great at reading decel, which will come in very useful when she is running courses!!!
For example at :39 – You were standing still at the wing so she really decelerated. No worries, things will get easier in terms of acceleration versus deceleration as she learns more about sequences. I prefer a thoughtful dog at this age, especially in the working breeds – letting them think their way through the ‘puzzles’ right now results in super fast AND accurate dogs.
>I think she’s doing great but I a not quite seeing the “confidence” I would like. I am not sure if that is the right word.>
It might be the understanding that we can help her with. When she understands, she will be a rocket ship! If she slows herself down, she is probably thinking and that is far better than getting overaroused and flinging herself at it or jumping up at you or all of the other adolescent things that could happen.
>At the end, I put it in my pants. This was interesting to see her speed slow down, which I am ok with. She might be thinking, and she might be getting a little tired>
Probably both, in terms of thinking and getting tired or hot. Plus, the visibility of the toy is a big motivator so with it hidden, she had to think about things differently.
So to help her out and make this all smoother, you can take this smiley face setup 🙂 and work on the toy stuff:
– choose a toy she likes but it easier to scrunch up on your hand and to throw.
– Add your marker word every time you want her to have it, being as consistent as possible to use it and not use praise or stopping or hand movement before it (this is hard for us humans!!)– Have the toy deliberately in your dog-side hand, and send her to a wing wrap (turning her to her easier side). She will have to go past it to get to the wing. When she does, do a FC, use your marker word, and let her take the toy from your hand. When her big jaws are closing around the toy, let go of the toy so she doesn’t grab your hand along with the toy because it might be smaller than usual 🙂
– Repeat that with the tunnel! Straighten it a little so it is easy to get her tall self into. With the toy in the dog-side hand, do an easy tunnel send. When she goes through the tunnel , use your toy in hand marker and let her come take it (letting go of the toy just as she gets to it.
If something goes wrong (like a little disconnect or something) – you can use a treat as a reward for effort or to reset her line. Or, you can use the toy marker then give her the toy. Or try to do a quick re-send to the obstacle. But don’t tug if she just grabs for it and you haven’t used the marker, because that will ultimately be a bit confusing about when the toy is available and when to focus on it.
When she has the lightbulb moment about ignoring the toy til she hears the marker, we put it all back together and it will be fast and easy 🙂
Looking at the 2nd video:
>This bled into our rear cross homework. If the toy is on the outside of the wing at all, she will wrap and run by the side of the wing.>
I think part of what happened here was that the exit of the wing wrap presented a straight line to the toy based on your position, and your RC happened a bit early so it pushed her off the line and straight past the jump 🙂
But we can definitely build more value for the jump! It sounds like we can get that by doing short blasts with super high value rewards. Those can be giant pieces of food or we can take the ‘ball is life’ approach 🙂 I have used giant chunks of cheese or cold chicken (very short sessions) because they are high value and easy to see. When she looks towards the jump as you are moving towards it, you fling the giant chunk. She might also like it delivered with a lotus ball or treat hugger.
For the ball-is-life approach – we know she loves the ball so the value transfer will be powerful 🙂 But we also don’t want her to splat herself chasing a ball! So we can do some arts-and-crafts 🙂 To use a ball effectively and safely, you can get a big hollee roller toy, cut one of the strands and shove a ball into it. That makes it easier to throw and see, but more importantly: it is a super high value reward that she can scoop up on the run 🙂
Then with the throwable high value rewards, we look at the wind in your hair games: have the exit of the wing wrap present a very straight line to the jump. Do a bunch of reps going straight and we have two approaches I like to take for this:
– you can be running up the line and as soon as she looks at the jump, throw the reward (rather than waiting til she gets to the jump).
– do a toy races variation with a placed toy. Have the toy or giant food reward (on a target) placed out ahead. Send around the wing and race her to the reward! If you get there first, it is yours to party with and she watches the party but does not get the reward. Feel free to cheat to win at first. Ha! She will probably only lose that race once or twice before she leaves you in the dust to get to the jump. Making it more of a ‘win the race’ game can build a lot of value and excitement into finding the jump 🙂 plus she will not think about it as much.
Great job! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Good morning and sorry for the delay! I had to drive home from Minneapolis and my RV was doing its best to break itself – slide, jacks, brakes… At the final gas stop 90 minutes from home last night, the battery decided to croak and it would not start LOL! But I outsmarted it and made it home 😆 only 24 hours late. I see you Bazinga email and will head to it next!
>I really think they should be birthday-months.>
Totally agree, as long as it is good weather. No snow, heat, or hurricanes allowed 😆
The minny pinny went pretty perfectly to the left turns – the little dude is a lefty! The right turns started off but he really told us that they are the harder turns for him to process.
It was really interesting that he had to walk away, do a full body shake at 1:02… then came back he could do the right turns. He just needed to reset himself to the harder side. Very cool to see!!!
Let him sleep on this for a few days to let latent learning work its magic 🙂 Then I bet he can do the right turns as well as the left turns.
Great job!
Tracy
Hello!! I think we should all just join you in the Azores!!! Your Facebook posts look spectacular!!!!!!! Enjoy the rest of your adventure and safe travels home!
Tracy
Hello and welcome! We missed you at OTR this past weekend but it looks like you had a great weekend!
Thanks for the update about Kaladin and Lift! I am happy to bug you to finish her contacts this summer 🙂
> but still trying to work through her extended teenager hyper-arousal tendencies around motion (worse in everyday life than while training).>
Fill me in on the latest scoop: I know she has boing-up at you and had trouble recovering if your connection was not perfect especially on a send. Let me know if this is still the case or if there are different things happening. My plan for the summer is to work on training/behavior as well as just handling 🙂
Tracy
Hello and welcome back!!! It will be fun to see your dogs work through these challenges. A lot of the games directly look at the impulse control and arousal regulation – that is important. And we will be looking at a lot of handling from a distance and staying on lines versus getting turns.
Have fun!
Tracy
Hello and welcome! I am looking forward to getting started!! Thank you for the list of challenges, that will be useful!
>Current challenges: teeter inconsistency, bailing at the end of weaves, >
We will use the skill challenge games for this!
>running past slices and threadle-slices, coming off a big curved line (at distance) and running past a jump, >
We will definitely work on all of this.
>not committing to obstacles if there is any break in connection (dog walk is a major culprit here).>
Do you mean she will run past it if connection is less than perfect? I am percolating ideas for you to get commitment on these even if connection is not perfect 🙂
Have fun!
Tracy
Hello and welcome! We definitely missed you in IA and MN but we will catch up here 🙂 Have fun!
Tracy
Hi!
>I wasn’t sure about my body position for the threadle. Thought maybe my feet and lower body not pointing forward enough.>
Adding movement made it more natural for your lower body to show the right info. He seemed to have no questions.
>Yes go is my release word. I think we talked about it on part one thread.>
I had a memory of that discussion but was thinking that maybe I had imagined it when I couldn’t find it 😂
> If I want extensions I will repeat it.go go go. Or at least that is what I have done with the other dogs.>
Sounds good! The different context and the different energies of the verbal (quieter go for the release, high energy louder GOGOGO for the lines) will also help him read the difference.
Tracy
Hi!
This went really well. For this session with a stationary reward, the 130 cm distance worked well. He is ready for the next step, where you are using the moving target reward – that might mean we expand the distance a little bit, maybe 1 or 2 more of your steps? But try it at this distance – lead out to where you were but have the toy on a line. Then release and drag it forward so he can power through then run to the moving toy. That adds the distraction of handler motion and challenges him to maintain control over his mechanics even when he is more excited and moving faster 🙂
Great job!
Tracy
Hello!
>This was a terrible session. My mechanics were terrible and i didn’t always reward the baby for my nonsense. But this is why you’re here… to make me better.>
Based on your comment about your mechanics and wanting to reward more, it seems you don’t really need me 🙂 Your reflections will make yourself better! But I will bug you to note that in the moment and not after the session 🙂
After watching the video, though, this is definitely NOT a terrible session!! It was a ‘working things out’ session and he had a lot of rewards. Baby Barry will give you feedback if the rate of reward gets too low… he will probably leave the session or get sniffy. I didn’t see any of that here and I also saw you really working to make adjustments to help him out.
As you are working things out in the heat of the moment – sometimes things go wrong and I keep a mental list of what to change for the next rep:
– Pup ends up on the wrong side of me? That’s a handler connection error, so bigger clearer connection will fix the issue. He ended up on the wrong side side a couple of times, and you immediately gave BIG connection on the next reps. SUPER!
– Pup goes wide when I am wanting a tight turn? It is possible that I am late with my cues hahaha ok more than possible that I am late. That is why he went wide on the reps where he was wide… and you were actively working to make the timing earlier. The earlier timing definitely got the better turns, especially to the right. He was working out the coordination to the left and did a good job!
For this game you can also send to the start wing from further away, which will help you show the decel and turn cues from ahead of him which will make it easier for him to read. Ideally, the decel begins when he hs exited the start wing. When you did that, the turns were really good! If you took an extra step or two, he went a little wider because he read it as extension cues.
You did a lovely job adding a lot of connection and working the timing. In the next session, getting a couple of steps ahead of him should make that even easier.
Nice work here!
Tracy
Good morning!
The thumbnail for the video here spotlights an absolutely gorgeous serp moment: position, connection, movement… and he is nailing it. Very cool to see YouTube capture that moment!
Super nice session on the video! Zillions of excellent things happening!!!!!
Excellent transition from the toy on the ground to the lineup position! He really likes that toy 🙂 but you made it clean and clear for him – no fighting about ignoring the toy. Click/treat to you!
He was an absolute star about holding the stay til released as you were moving and getting your arm in position. That is NOT easy especially with the toy on the ground. Super!
Serps and threadles both looked good – your position relative to the jump was very clear (and different for each one, plus your upper body (arm, connection, verbal) looked clear for both too. The serp cues and the threadle cues looked distinctly different so he really had no questions.
Question: is ‘go’ your regular release word that gives permission to leave the stay, or is it also your ‘run straight in extension’ cue. I scrolled back but couldn’t find it.
If it is your release word- perfect, keep on using it here 🙂 If it is your ‘go straight in extension’ word, the serp release can be a ‘break’ or ‘ok’ or even a left/right (depending on the setup) so he drives to you and we maintain the go straight element of the go verbal.
>The session was a little longer since I was trying to do both sides and we had the play in it.>
Yes, a little longer than usual but because of how you set it up, he seemed to maintain his engagement all the way through – no distractions, no getting tired. That is because of how you used a lot of toy play (his favorite, I think!) and also those smooooooth transitions from the toy back to the start of the next rep (cookies!). And your cues were super clear so he was super successful. Basically, it was an ideal session which is why he went the whole time, both sides, no problem at all. YAY!!!!!
Great job 🙂
Tracy
Good morning!
Super nice session here. Straight line reps at the beginning looked good! And I really like how you did a LOT of straight line reps – this actually really helps the rear crosses because it keeps him looking ahead. You said “jump” on most of the straight line reps but you can totally use your GO verbal as well.
The first RC to the right was spot on – great job getting on the rear cross line to make it clear!
When you did the RC to the left – you did say Go Jump and threw the toy straight so he went straight (I think that was an accidental RC there). On the 2nd & 3rd RCs, you had a good RC line on both but the verbals said ‘jump’ and ‘go jump’ so he went straight – I think using your swing verbal there (like at :27) will make it perfect.
And I agree that his focus was terrific! He is really growing up and you’ve done a lovely job helping him find working with you more exciting than all the access to the environment there! Yay!
Great job here!!
Tracy
Hi!
Dog on left at the beginning – super nice! You said it was dog on right, so maybe the video is mirrored? Either way, on the first part of the video: You were clearly turned to the new line as she rounded the barrel so she knew exactly where to go. And had no trouble turning away.On the other side – first rep you were running backwards which is harder but also very impressive because I would have fallen on my butt haha!
You were running forward nicely on the other reps and turning really well too – she knew where to go in terms of which end of the tunnel, but I think her question at the tunnel was about turning turning away from you to her right. I recall that we thought she was a lefty? So that might be why it was easy to get her to turn away to her left on the first side but harder on the second side. (Or vice versa if the video is mirrored LOL!)
So on her harder turn away side, you can put the reward(the toy) right inside the entry of the tunnel, so she turns away and gets the immediate reward. Then as she gets more comfy, you can move the reward to the end of the tunnel so she turns away and then complete the tunnel.
That will also get the toy ut of your hand for now – I think part of the challenge was the toy in your hand was VERY exciting. She turned away nicely when you had food as the reward , so putting the toy right inside the tunnel entry will help her turn away from it and then it will be a great reward too 🙂
Great job here!
Tracy
Hi! I agree that this went really well, in both directions! Very high success rate and very few bloopers.
I think he was 100% accurate (and fast :)) when you asked him to go straight and not take the jump. Super!
He was almost perfect with the outs and you did a great job keeping yourself accountable for moving straight and not towards the jump.
When it went well, your connection was very clear and you used your arm to point towards the exit wing of the jump – and you kept it up until he locked onto the jump.
In the blooper moments like at 1:03, 3:18, 3:40 – the arm cue was a little hidden so I don’t think he really saw it.
My favorite rep was at 3:54 – great use of arm & connection & verbal, and your line of motion was perfect 🙂 Super!!!!
The only other thing to remember: when sending to the start wing, he did much better when you also stepped towards it with your dog-side leg. He had questions/refusals when you did not step to it, so definitely remember to use your leg.
Great job!
Tracy
