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Hi!
>It was 3 feet>
Next time you revisit the grid, you can add 3 or 4 inches (basically the width of your hand) and see how he does.
He definitely liked the early morning diamond session! I think you need to spread it all out so you are running more đ When you were doing the race tracks, you had no place to run to so you slowed down⌠and he knows what decel is so HE slowed down too LOL!!! So increase the spacing to 20 feet between the wings (sorry not sorry for the extra running) – that way when you run in closer to the tunnel, you will then have to really run to do the blinds and race tracks. I think he will love it and also commit better with more motion.
For the rear crosses: more distance between the jump and tunnel might help here too. When the jump is 20-something feet away, you can go in close to the tunnel and then you will really have to accelerate for the go and for the rear cross. I think his questions were mainly about âwhy are you decelerating if you want me to accelerateâ. The boy knows his turn cues LOL! So move the jump further away, get in closer to the curve of the tunnel and then accelerate: letâs see what he does!
Great job here!
TracyHi! Happy birthday, Keeper!!!
Nice job on the blinds in the diamond game! They looked good in isolation on the wings and coming from the tunnel too!
Definitely take a less is more approach he was much slower about halfway through (more on that below), and trotting at 2:20 versus running at the beginning. If he gets something correct once? Move on to the next challenge rather than repeat it. And set a timer so he is only on course 2 minutes total without editing. We want to maintain that speeeeeed đRear crosses: getting close to the tunnel helped you move up the rear cross line clearly, which helped him see the RC info on both the left and right sides. Make sure you run on the GO reps so he also runs đ if you are walking or stationary, he will not be sure about what to do on the line.
Accordion – really nice first session here! The reward was not visible on the camera but I am guessing it was a stationary reward? He was dialing back his âpushâ over the jump, probably getting ready to stop at the reward. So for the next session: moving target reward đ I am interested to see how he organizes his jumping when you and the reward are moving.
Tunnel threadles:
Turning sooner at the wing will help him see the tunnel threadle cues. If you are facing forward as he comes around the wing, he might lock onto the tunnel entry directly in front of him (that is what was happening here when he was going off course).
One thing I notice in the handling sessions here is that while he would run for the ball reward, he would start to trot either halfway through the session (like in the diamond video), or for most of the session (like the tunnel threadle session). This indicates that he is dialing back the effort of running because the sessions are too long and/or there are too many sessions total. In order to be able to work that much, he had to slow down. We want him to keep blasting and running fast and not getting tired or dialing back his speed to conserve energy⌠so you can structure the sessions differently to get that. Either do one 3 or 4 minute session of a game⌠and that is all then he gets a long long break đ Or, if you want to do multiple games: 30 seconds of each! Go full force for 30 seconds then he is done. By doing this much training, he gets tired and is building trotting into the game so you will want to have him do a lot less. If you want to work out the handling, you can run the sequences without him to be practiced and then try it with him. And if you are working on something and see he is trotting – take that as a sign that youâve done too much and need to take a break.
Nice work here!
Tracy
Hi!
He seemed to think this was the easiest game ever! He is also speedy – you need more room to get the blind cross in sooner. If you have a long, carpeted hallway, you can use that to give yourself a bigger head start. You can also take this game outside if you have a safe area where he can run run run đ Finding the start cookie in the grass might be hard, so you can use a giant towel to toss it onto – that way he can find it as you run the other way, giving you plenty of time for the blind then the decel.
And he looks ready for you to add in the advanced level with the toy throw and go go go!
Great job :)â¨â¨
TracyHi!
It has been a crazy few weeks! I saw you for about 10 seconds at CanAm, running Huck, while I was sprinting to the ring LOL!!Pick up with revisiting the wing wrap games:
And then get into the turn-and-burn game because it is SUPER fun and will get both of you back in the saddle đ
Separately from the cone wrap stuff, you can do the parallel path game on the prop:
Prop Games: Parallel Path, Countermotion Games, and Rear Crosses!!
Have fun!
Tracy
Hi!
>I wasnât sure if you meant to tug and then play using food as the reward or sometimes use the tug as a reward. >
For the parallel path, the treat is a better reward to get more reps in, more rapidly. You can use the toy as the reward but you need to throw it đ rather than tug from your hand so she doesnât look at you. So you can use a treat or two, then tugging to keep her excited, then a treat or two.
You can use your âget itâ marker more for the tossed treat or toy so she doesnât look up at you. Sometimes it was a âyesâ and the âget itâ is definitely the better choice here.
>I used the tug as the reward as well as the food which is her kibble. She definitively works more with the toy than the food.>
Yes, the food was not that exciting. You can increase the value of the food by continuing to use a lot of tugging like you did here, but also use better treats đ Kibble is not that exciting so pieces of something really yummy can get her jazzed up to offer more behavior when treats are in the picture. With the kibble, she would go get it and eat it then kind of wander back⌠but I bet with something like bits of cheese or St. Roccos treats, she races to it then races right back to work more đ
>I wrote pseudosend because acouple of times I had to point out what we were doing.>
I think this was generally after the tug breaks, so you can use a âstart cookieâ after the tug breaks – I am not sure she knew when to start LOL! So tossing a treat will get her moving and then you can move for the parallel path cue.
She did well finding the prop here, so you can keep adding more and more lateral distance, as well as starting next to her but further away so she drives ahead of you to it (to get her ready for rear crosses :))
As it gets harder, she might miss the prop – no need to mark that with âuh ohâ or âyou missed itâ, as that draws her up to look at your face. Instead, just turn and walk the other direction back towards the prop to see if she will hit it. If she misses it a couple of times, then you can get a little closer to see if that helps her find it.
Nice work here!
â¨TracyHi! Another good tune! Thanks!
>prop game not great on Sunday.>
Still plenty of good here!
> Probably a bit too warm for him (fall is a myth) >
Yes – baby dogs donât process heat as well, so we often see a dip in performance as they regulate. Perfectly fine! And weather extremes seem to be our new normal đ
>and he had ran out there and done some laps with my other aussie. His best sessions are solo (but I have a husband to manage too).>â¨
Nothing wrong with a bit of fun play đ He might have been a bit tired from the party before the training, but it was still a god session. He was great with offering, tugging, eating treats.At the beginning, the bowl or target (?) on the ground nearer to the camera might have been a distraction but he worked through that really well. His parallel path game is going nicely!
To get the rear crosses (you tried a bit of RC) more smoothly: start with him, with you both further away from the prop (10-15 feet at least) so he drives ahead of you which will allow you to get to the new side sooner (before he arrives at the prop). You started a bit too close so he got to the prop before he saw you appear on the new side.
He is sending well but we can get more âsnapâ and explosiveness to the send by letting him get pumped up right before it. Remember to get the engagement before the send: look at his eyes, do a little dance, let him look at you, and when you see him getting jazzed up and muscles tensing – cue the send. It might not be totally accurate at first so you can start close, and get the explosiveness and accuracy.
Nice work!
Tracy
Hi!
>This was more about teaching the retrieve the way you do it in the lesson, starting in a small space, toss toy and reqard for any coming back to you with the toy. I will do this way also some as I figure using different ways will build different pictures of what a retireve could look like and be a good experience.>
There are a lot of ways to teach it đ The smaller space and rewarding *any* coming back keeps it more playful with less pressure.
>once she has more space to go around me I was thinking put a line on either the toy or her so she canât get too far with the toy.>
Yes – you can put a line on the toy. I prefer not to put a line on the pup, as that can often end up in them accidentally getting cranked on the neck if they are noodling around with the toy. And in bigger spaces, you can add your movement away from her so she chases you a bit too.
>However, I will say that today (for the first time) she was actually bringing a toy to me to get me to play with her in some way (catch, tug, fetch), we werenât playing a retrieve game at all and I wasnât asking her to bring it to me. YAY!!>
FUN!! The best retrieves are built through the fun of playing đ
Looking the videos:
Adding the âaroundâ word worked well. The bowl can move around the cone faster, though đ With the goal being that she learns to look for the line and ignore the bowl, you can get the bowl visible as something to ignore more quickly at this point (she has had lots of reps with it on her line). Getting it more visible to ignore will help her isolate that the forward focus should be on the cone (not on the bowl). So for the next session, start where the bowl ended up here (she did great on the last rep!) and keep moving it towards you, several inches at a time.Parallel path: this went really well! She has strong value for her hat!
We can get her looking forward to the line before and after the prop even more: the âYes huntâ marker is causing her to look up at you. If âhuntâ is a reward location marker saying âyour cookie reward is thrown aheadâ then you donât need to say yes at all. The âyesâ was causing her to look up at you then she would look for the treat, so just mark with âhuntâ and toss the treat.
>I will look at adding lateral distance.>
Yes, she is ready for that! And you can add in staying close to her and starting with her, so she drives ahead – that will set you up nicely for the rear crosses đ
Rocker board:
She seemed unconcerned about any noise or movement here! Yay! When adding noise/movement, bring her into the session with the toy – tugging before you ask for the rocker board, then tugging on it. That higher arousal state will basically guarantee she doesnât care about the movement or noise. Coming in on treats can make the noise or movement more obvious and possibly concerning.You can keep playing with the rocker board in different locations and with different-sounding surfaces underneath.
Balance discs – the setup with multiple discs certainly allowed her to offer more feet on the discs! Perfect! You can overlap them, add more stuff, basically make up little piles of stuff for her to climb around on.
Novel-exciting:
She did well with the game but we can make an adjustment in the setup to get more of the self-control concept involved.When starting the session, we do want the novel-exciting thing in the area but we want her to come in and directly go into whatever game you plan: and not go investigate the novel-exciting thing immediately like she did at the beginning here.
So have everything set, camera on, you are ready⌠then bring her in and start the game immediately (donât let her be the first one into the space). When you did start the game, she had already checked out the novel object so it was not really a self-control game at that point đ
And same idea when you set the treat bag out: note how you put it down, then got set for the next session. But while you did that, she totally investigated the bag, found out that it was not open, so stopped trying.
Flip that around: have her outside of the room, get everything set, then bring her in and go right into work. The goal is that her brain is able to ignore the object in the environment without checking it out first đ
Nice work here!
Tracy
Hi!
>The addition of the food bowl worked great. I forgot to press record! So we quick videoed to show you.>
Turn and burn is going great! Yay! Keep working on getting your front cross earlier and earlier – remember to put the line on the ground so you can make sure you are leaving earlier rather than at the same time đ Nice job adding the wrap verbals too!
>At the end she declined to have a toy reward with the prop>
The prop is likely very associated with food at this point (classical conditioning, Pavlov and friends đ¤Łđ) so it makes sense why the toy wouldnât even register as an option. No worries! You can bridge the gap with a food toy, potentially: one of those lotus-ball-on-a-tuggie toys can bring the tugging in along with the food.
Keep your hands low with treats in both hands for the backing up – that way she can back up directly from the hands. When you lift them up after dropping the start cookie, she stops backing up. And toss treats from alternating hands – if you only toss from one hand, you will see she locks onto that one hand and backs away from it on an angle.
She has good value of the prop! The sending is going well – because she likes to watch your cookie hands a lot, you can throw the treats more rather than hand them to her (so she looks at your hands less, hopefully).
To get the RCs, you need more room đ She knows how to go to the prop on the parallel path, but when you were both starting so close to it, you didnât have time to get to the new side before she arrived at the prop. Then she was getting sticky because you were trying to change sides early and not moving up the line.
Ideally, you have 10 to 15 feet of distance between you and the prop – that way as she moves up the line, you are also moving but changing sides before she arrives at the prop. That should get her to commit to the line to it and turn the correct direction.
Nice work here!
Tracy
Hi!
More good prop value here! Yay!I agree that the lateral and backwards sending is looking strong. For the backwards/countermotion sending: engage with her before you send, so she is ready to be sent. She was often still getting the treat off the ground so the responses were delayed. To get the snappy responses, gather her attention, do the ready dance and when she is looking at you: cue the send đ
The rear crosses here needed more space too đ A long hallway is great or outdoors, just to get yo auto the new side before she arrives at the prop. When you do get the info to her on time, she makes the rear cross happen. Yay! You can see it at 1:24 – you got to the new side before she arrived at the prop and you got a nice rear cross to the left! Super!
Nice job here!
â¨TracyHi!
For the rear crosses – you totally have the correct line of motion for the rear cross, changing sides as if the prop was a bar. The questions here were about needing more space.
Two things that will really help:
Start in the same spot each time. You were tending to start in different spots, which changed the line for the rear cross.
Take the game to a spot where you have more room. What was happening here was that you and Rory were both very close to the prop, so by the time you started the RC info she was already at the prop and turned the original direction (good girl). In other words⌠you were late đ
So to be on time, you need at least 10 feet or more – start with her and she should drive ahead of you, so you can change sides behind her before she gets to the prop. That will create the rear cross line.
>This seems too almost work when she is turning away to my left but is a disaster when turning right because Iâm using the âwrongâ arm. Should I be using the left arm here? Should it be subtle or recognizable?>
It is not an arm cue at all – it is about getting to the new side before she arrives at the prop. Take it outside with more hand, and I bet it gets a lot easier đ
She did great with the lateral distance here (later in the video). You can throw the reward out on the line past the prop more to keep her moving on that straight line, rather than curling back to you. This game can use more distance too – the frog hat might need to go outside đ
Nice work!
TracyHi!
She is definitely starting to get the concept! Super! You can let her offer more – when you put the start cookie down, keep your hands stationary rather than move them towards her so she moves away on her own (rather than your hands pushing her back).
You started tossing the treats and that really helped!
One thing that will help get even more backing up: Keep your hands at her nose level, rather than lift them up after you put the start cookie down. When your hands come up, her head comes up too so that stops the backing up a bit.
>I thought the target mat would be useful but it didnât seem to help much. >
Yes, adding the mat will help a lot. You can help her understand that it is about backing up to the mat by starting each and every rep on the mat (all 4 feet on the mat, so it is should be perpendicular to you like it was :47 – 2:45. Then lure just her front feet off – and let her offer putting her front feet back on. When she can do that easily a few times, lure all 4 of her feet off then let her offer putting her back feet on it, then reward. But starting on the mat each time will make a big difference.
>Perhaps the biggest challenge was to keep her going backward in a straight line.>
Getting her knowing it is about the mat will help this, and so will alternating which hand you toss the treat from. When you only toss from your right hand, she will orient herself towards your right hand and back away from it on an angle. So, have treats in both hands and alternating tossing from your left and from your right, so she can back up straight.
Nice work here!
Tracy
Hi!
>Rory was so confident on the Versaplank tippy board I tried her on the Cato tippy board. One tip and a bang and that became a MUCH larger challenge so it seems we need to work more on noise.>
Had she been across the Cato board in this setup before? I think the big difference here was that the other plank was a lot lower on the tip, and she had already been over it a bunch. The tip on the cato plank is really high here and looked pretty different, so she was tentative before the noise added in. One thing that is super important – less is more with adolescent dogs :). Make smaller changes, and when adding in the noises and more movement, you can do one rep for a fistful of treats⌠then end the session. Adolescents notice all the small changes and can be extra sensitive to that, so any new changes might be like giant mountains to them đ
So for her next session, take the cato tippy thing and stuff all sorts of pillows and stuff under it, so it is relatively stable and quiet. Then she can have a giant reward for it. The one-reward sessions do wonders for building up the love for movement and sound.
Nice work!
Tracy
Hi!
>We did use the cone, but no video, then continued on with a âbarrel.â I laughed watching this video â I donât get to see the cameraâs eye view of him.>
This went really well!
I chuckled at his wrap video too – he is very emphatic about his choices LOL!!! Good boy đ Heâs got the idea though – super nice wrapping on the barrel as soon as he stopped optimistically smacking the bowl for treats at the beginning đ
You can move on to the turn and burn game, using the barrel or cone (whichever you think he is better with). That game can use a bowl as a visual aid to help him out (you will see that in the description) and you can also use a long toy as the reward.
Backing up is going well – great job keeping your hand super low! That might make your back angry đ so feel free to sit on something low so you donât have to bend over quite as much.
When you revisit backing up, you can add more distance for him to back up, bit by bit, by luring him off the mat a little further each time.
>I know that the next step will be backing up onto a slanted board. Is it okay to use a small piece of plywood with this mat or a yoga mat set on top?>
Absolutely! Great idea!
Prop game:
Parallel path is going well. You can replace the click with a âget itâ marker, then toss the treat. That will help him not look at you, and look forward on the line more.
For the countermotion – be sure to gather him up in front of you, engage⌠then send him. The first part of the cue looked just like a parallel path rep, so he was surprised when you moved the other direction. If you make it a super clear send, he will drive to his prop and then you can easily be moving the other direction.
For the rear crosses:
>For the rear cross, Charley consistently turns away from me, thereby spinning in the opposite direction.>
This is where you can use more space to set up the line. On the reps here, you were very close to the prop so when you started to show the RC info, he was already at the prop (so he correctly turned the original direction). If you give yourself more space, you can start both of you further away. He will move ahead of you and you will have the time to get to the new side before he reaches the prop so he turns the new direction.
You can use a long hallway if you have one, or even take this game outside if you have a yard or someplace available to add more room to the game.
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
Rear crosses are going well – I think the visual of the tunnel out past the jump made the right turn RC easier but the left turn RC a little harder! But he was able to get them because you were putting a lot of pressure on the RC line to the bar. The backsides looked easy here, no problem. Your line of handling was very clear. Super!
He definitely has the idea of the layering when he was on your right!
He had more questions when he was on your left – it is possible that he was not seeing the line to the start wing as well, which was causing you to come in further then have to pull away to try to layer. But when you pulled away, it actually cued him to not go to the jump. So you can change the angle of the start wing so it lines him up to the jump without you having to run in as close to get it.
Also, keep tabs on # of reps – even if he isnât getting it entirely, you can limit the reps so he doesnât get slow down. There were 20-something reps here so he was still working but had dialed back the speed and drive into the game. It is more ideal for the total session to be about 3 minutes, rather than editing it down to 3 minutes. The shorter blasts will keep him super fast!The diamond:
The blinds at the beginning are looking good – nice connection on the exit of the blind! Adding the tunnel went well too – I think there were times where you were trying to convince your feet to turn away into the blind so sometimes it was a little delayed, but the connection was good when you did it so he did really well reading the exits. There was a rep or two when you got a little off the line and ended up pushing him back to the tunnel but in general your line was good! The race tracks also looked good around the outside, and it was a nice variation from the repetition of the blinds – as soon as he has the blinds, you can move to the next little sequence. That will reduce the # of reps overall as well as the number of times he does the same thing. As you are working it out, you can run it without him so he sees the full picture before he tries it đThe zig zags are going well too – he was not quite sure of moving away on the first rep but did really nicely after that. When you revisit it, you can use shorter bars to get him to bounce more and take fewer strides, but for now you can move to the accordion in the week 8 games.
Nice work here!
Tracy
Hi! I hope you arenât getting hit too hard with the norâeaster!
This went well! He was able to read the cues and did really well finding the lines and doing the turn aways!
>As a general finding, I think I do too many repetitions. Rusty is always more enthusiastic in the first few reps. >
Yes, he was definitely a bit tired after the first 3 or 4 reps, and slowed down. It is also possible that there were too many reps of the same/similar things with the same toy, so he wasnât as excited about as he was at the beginning. Going to the other side of the tunnel to the wing perked him up (:58) but then he slowed down again.
So you can do fewer reps but also change the challenge more frequently and change which reward you use – he seems to like variety! And you can do a couple of reps then take a break so he doesnât get too hot or tired.
Great job here!
Tracy
