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Good morning!
Looking at the first rep:
>>The blooper rep was totally on me. I mean all bloopers are but I just had sloppy handling! Should I have been running closer to the tunnel so she would drive ahead on the last two jumps? >>
On the first rep at :06, you were looking forward and very lateral, so she didn’t see a cue to take 4. Compare to the 2nd and 3rd runs where your connection and lines were much clearer! Do you need to be closer to the tunnel or jumps? For her, not on a simple line like this unless you were setting up a rear cross. You can stay connected back to her and take off up the line to get ahead 🙂
>>I should be doing that or having her figure out how to drive ahead of me after she comes out of the tunnel>>
This is also a good skill to work on, so you can use the setup as a training opportunity to make sure she knows how to drive ahead as well.
>>they definitely need me close in some instances and I want them to have the confidence to go ahead or take something ahead.>
Yes – in some cases (like really tight turns or weird lines) being closer is best so you can show the lines. But these lines are pretty straightforward, so you can play with being way ahead, as well as getting in close to the tunnel so she drives ahead (for when you can’t get ahead :))
The blind cross reps were also really good here especially at :50 and 1:13 – those were your earlier BCs, where you were finished before she took off for the jump. The others were good too – she was flying up the line there and your connection after the BC was clear so she changed sides really well!!!
On the 2nd video – great job working each element separately!
>>The first exercise I clearly could not figure out my hands and upper body. >
This was at the beginning when you worked the tight turn on jump 2 to the tunnel and it went really well! You can lead out more so you are at the wing sooner, which will make it easier to get her on your right side to go into the tunnel. Having to move into it was probably what was making you feel like your arms were moving too much.
The blind on the landing side of 3 looked great! So did the cross on the takeoff side (it was a FC and that worked well). Because you want to drive her to the tunnel and then get to your next position without having to run backwards to get it, this is a spot to actually lead out less! Maybe lead out to the jump and send to the tunnel when you are doing the BC on the landing side 3 after the tunnel. And for the FC on the takeoff side, you can lead out even less so as she arrives at the tunnel, you are still on the takeoff side of the jump, making the side change very easy.
Yay for the RC!!! Those reps looked really strong, super clear RC lines and nice drive back to the tunnel.
The full sequence looked fabulous! Nice distance on your send to the tunnel at 2:16 (great connection and verbals while you were peeling away to the blind at 2:17) – that got you to the blind with great timing and position. She was flying!
The BC start on the next run looked great. The RC and the side changes after the tunnel also looked super strong, and your connection was very clear on both of these runs. Super!!!
My only suggestion is to add deceleration into the wrap jumps at 2:22 and 2:47 – a tiny bit of slowing down as you move forward when she lands from the previous jump will help her collect for the wrap. She was a little wide on those because you were accelerated, so the decel will get the good collection there too. You don’t need to do t he FC sooner, just adding the deceleration will naturally get the collection.
>>On the plus side, she stayed dialed in when the Amazon Prime delivery driver stopped at our house. High five to Kashia for that!>>
Haha, yes!! I was distracted by that but she did not look at the delivery at all. Yay!
Great job here!!!
Tracy
Hi!
I think what happened here was that the session progressed from almost no motion (hers and yours) to a lot of motion too quickly for you both – she could do it if you were stationary without the tunnel and at the end she got it with you being stationary after she exited the tunnel.We can break it down a bit so that he can get it when you are both moving:
– before adding the tandems, help her process turn info on the tunnel exit by doing two things: call her loudly when she is still a solid 6 feet before the tunnel entry. And, do a BC so she exits and you are connected over your other shoulder and she changes sides rather than lock onto the wing. That will help her to learn that the LOUD name call before she enters means “something happening on exit watch the momma!” And you can be moving while this is happening – we don’t want lack of motion to be the cue.When she can do that:
– add your motion first, with her in a stay at the tunnel exit and you are walking up the line with steady slow motion – no stopping to get her to come in. And you can use a tug toy as a reward for coming to your hand, that can be really exciting for her!
– when she can do it from the tunnel exit and come to your hands with you in steady motion, you can add sending her into the tunnel. Your motion will remain the same (slow and steady, lots of rewards for coming into your hands – the tug toy might be more motivating and also more visible)When she can do that, you can add more and more of your speed! It might take a couple of sessions to build it up with motion but that is fine 🙂
Nice work here! Let me know how she does!
Tracy
Wow, she is doing great with the bang game! Yay!!!
You can start adding your motion: as you cue her to go into position, start to sloowwwllllly walk forward and past the target so she gets used to you moving while she is stopping in position. It will be sooooo slooowww for now to help maintain the success you have here. Then you can either toss a treat back, or release forward, or go back and deliver a treat (using a marker for each, so many words 🤣🤣)
>>somehow I paired it altogether but not sure how to get rid of it. I released her faster in this video so I didn’t get the rear leg movement.>>
It is possible that she is just getting frantic because she doesn’t know what else to offer, so she offers ALL the things? She might not even realize she is moving her rear leg. So you don’t need to leave her on there for too long – you can mark and reward pretty quickly, and praise early as well even if you don’t reward or release right away (to get more duration). I think having you moving will also help, because maybe she was doing the leg thing because you were behind her? Her leg was dropping off the side a little on this session because she was looking back at you after hitting position.
Great job here!
Tracy
Hi!
I think part of what was happening was a side preference for turning to her left – she turned left on all the reps 🙂 So when you wanted the left turn like at :14 and :20 – there was some pressure on the RC line there and you were moving sooner on those reps, but turning to her left was easier in general.
On the other reps where you wanted the right turns – the right turns away from you are harder and require more brain processing to get the mechanics. The info can be sooner at :03, :08, :26, and :32 and then on the last rep to the right as well. Ideally you would be fully on the other side of her having completed the RC before she enters. You can help get that by moving the wings further away (15 feet or more) to give you time to actually get to the other side of her before she enters – she is fast!
And you can also use a placed reward that is somewhat visible but also gets the right turn – that can help her with the mechanics of turning away from you to her right at high speed.
Nice work trying to sort this out and keep it fun for her! Let me know how she does with more room to show her the side change and the placed toy!
Tracy
Good morning!
>>I’m not completely sure there was a lot of value for the mat or if she was just running to the MM.>
I think there were plenty of deliberate his of the mat, which means there is value and she was not just running to the MM 🙂
>> I only treated in 1 direction and held & released her from the other side. >>
You can do a back and forth approach: MM clicks when she hits going away from you, and a cookie toss when she hits on the way back to you.
>> I am thinking the next session I click when I see all 4 feet on the ground after the mat?>>
Yes, you can do that! The other thing I would add is now elevating the mat by attaching it to something that is maybe an inch of two tall (like a piece of wood). The purpose of that is to make her footsteps even more obvious (to you both) because she has to step up and over the mat.
>> I see Hot Sauce had a tiny pause after the mat. Was that just shaped by careful clicking? >>
Yes – she had to walk/trot off the mat and was slowing herself down to do that and NOT leap 🙂 She now has the full running dog walk, no leaping and no pausing LOL!
>>What would the criteria be for a non-click (besides a leap)? >>
Missing the mat entirely would be a non-click. I like to see a 1-2-3-4 footfall pattern where each foot should be visible enough for me to count to 4, and I try to click on foot 4 – and if I can see the 1-2-3-4 patter then I can also see if the dog is preparing to leap or not 🙂 So I might reward a 1-2-3 pattern in the early stages if there is no leaping, or even just front feet in the early stages. The no-leaping rule is the most important in the early steps 🙂
>>I was not clicking when she did not get all 4 paws on the mat in this session>>
When the mat is a bit elevated, you will see her put more feet on the mat so there will be more clicks. On the reps here where you didn’t click, I think she didn’t really purposely hit it so it was fine to not click.
Great job here!
TracyHi!
Very cool to work from home and play with the dogs 🙂 The weather is looking good!On the rear crosses:
>>turning left was not our friend. I know my mechanics aren’t perfect, but he’s pretty happy to turn right, so I think I need to do some more work on just left/right verbals?>>
Yes, I see a definite right turn side preference (that is totally normal). The reps at :03, :07 and :36 were late getting on the RC line, so he was fine to turn right there.
On the right turn RCs, the timing at :12 and :22 was good – you were changing sides behind him before he took off and that helped. You were too early at :17 and pushed him off the line (he had a bit of BIG MAD there, good job giving him the toy).
Your timing on the left turn RCs at :27 and :31 was really good, much earlier than the previous left turn RC reps. But he still confidently turned right: maybe it was partially because he had been rewarded turning right, or partially because he is a righty, or both!
So yes, you can do more verbal work but mainly I think he needs a little help sorting out the mechanics of turning away from you to his left (it is like writing your name with your non-dominant hand). A placed reward will make a massive difference because it will provide a focal point. You can tuck in a MM or toy on the landing side of the left turn reps and that will really help him (I think on the demo videos I have a toy placed on the right turn RC reps for my lefty dogs :))
On the serps:
>I also had Mochi out there because that’s something I didn’t do well with her (work with the distraction of another dog) and because I was being lazy. I thought he generally did pretty well with everything going on!?>>
He did pretty well but it was too much pressure – note how much he looks at her and how she is shaking the toy and chasing his line. That draws bandwidth in his brain away from the processing needed for the other things going on and devoting mental space into not running into her and ignoring her movement. The errors in the session were related to her being right there or chasing his line. And with baby pups, there is not a lot of bandwidth to begin with LOL!!
You can ease into the pressure of having other dogs around by having her in a down stay or on a station – but no toy shaking or chasing her brother around LOL!! That is especially important because if there is an error and you communicate that it was incorrect… he might not actually know what the error was because mental bandwidth being devoted to ignoring the other things in the environment. So with less pressure in the environment, you will see the little errors go away because he can process his mechanics and the cues better. The little errors are things like not seeing the tart wing at :12 when you didn’t step to it, or at :14 and :20 when he was looking at her and not at you.
On the next session, you can also start to add a little more distance between the wing and jump – and if he can still find the jump easily, you can start to flatten out the angle of the jump a bit.
Nice work here!!
TracyGood morning! These are looking really good!
>>I might have made it too easy because we finished the game in just one session and that’s not really our style.>
I don’t think it was too easy! You and Mason nailed it in one session – that doesn’t always happen with our pups but it is fun when it does! He did have one question at :13, when the wing was further around on the tunnel side and you were looking ahead more. He got it on the next rep, with some really strong connection from you too!
The timing of the FC from the jump to the tunnel can get sooner eventually but for now it is fine to let him go a little wide on the jump – that way you can be sure he is definitely committed to the jump
The short tunnel worked well here, so for the next session you can start with the longer tunnel and the ends turned down because it is a bigger visual to go past so turning down the tunnel ends will make it a little less exciting 🙂
On the rear cross video:
He is getting the idea of RCs! Yay! The verbals can totally help and your connection was good!!>>He seems to be thinking a lot as he heads toward the jump. >>
Yes – he was waiting for more info before committing to a takeoff decision. That means you can give the RC info sooner:
I think you were waiting for him to pass you before getting more strongly on the RC line to the center of the bar. The RC reps were at (:05, :13, :36, and :43) and on those you can see that the RC pressure started when he was maybe halfway between the tunnel exit and jump – so he was reading the pressure, but if we can get it earlier there will be too positive outcomes:
– he will turn before takeoff
– you won’t be as far behind : )So we can work on getting you right on his tail for the RCs: you can get closer to the tunnel exit before he exits (feel free to send to the start wing from a position already near the tunnel exit or skip the start wing and just send into the tunnel). As he is exiting, you are running directly forward to the center of the bar from very close to him: that cues him to go past you and RC, and you will be ahead of him again after the RC 🙂
Related to this:
>>I noticed that Mason exits on the outer edge of the tunnel, which is probably expected. The unexpected thing is that he takes the jump on that same side of the bar even though I have the tunnel exit lined up with the center of the bar, if not even facing a little toward the other end of the bar. Am I pushing him over to that side? >>
I see what you mean! Being on the outside of the tunnel is fine. When he is approaching the jump, it looks like he is moving away a tiny bit to get a better visual of the cue: viewing it with a little more distance gives him the fuller picture. Note that he is looking at you while doing this. So basically he is saying: I am not sure if it is a RC or not, so I will get a better view of the full picture of the cue 🙂 I think starting the cue earlier by getting on the RC line sooner will help him drive straighter on the line to the jump.
>>The middle of the dog walk is beyond the jump. You can see part of the ramp in the video. He has never paid any attention to it before, but maybe it is adding a bit of pressure.>>
This is entirely possible that a bit of mental bandwidth is being taken up by the dog walk ramp in front of him. I am sure part of his brain is saying “don’t run into that, it would probably hurt” 🙂 But I don’t think it was impacting him negatively or was too much pressure.
>>Collar grabs seem to create a lot of whining, pulling away from me, and frustration, so I’m starting with a reset cookie>>
Try to get it on video if possible so we can see what the antecedents are. I like to have the collar hold firmly in the toolbox for a variety of reasons (the top one being a safety thing in off leash sports: it is so useful to be able to stand there and hold the dog’s collar). To help reduce the arousal or frustration of the collar hold, you can line him up with a treat, put your hand on his collar (no pulling back or ready-set-go or anything), give him another treat, then let go. Ideally it just becomes a happy part of the line up (we don’t hold him very long at all at the beginning) because it is very neutral.
Great job here!
TracyGood morning!
Strong session here! He is really getting the idea of moving ahead and doing rear crosses! And the added play between reps made it even more fun for him.On the GO reps, you should move more the line, rather than stop and throw. This will accomplish two things: we want the acceleration to be built in as part of the cue, and also he will get used to you moving while he has to sort out his jumping mechanics.
The rear crosses are going well – using the right verbal only is better than GO + right, because they mean different things 😁and we want him to respond to the first cue he hears. On these, you were using more motion forward on the line and that was great – you don’t need for him to pass you before you are moving up the line because your motion on the RC line will cue him to pass you and to do the turn to his right. You can see that in action at 3:08, for example, where you were moving up the line pretty early (in a good way!) and he drove ahead and turned right. Yay!!! So keep doing that and adding more and more motion on the line. He doesn’t need your dog-side arm to point ahead on these, the motion and connection were all he needed.
Great job!
TracyHi!
He was able to find the jump each time with you being close and putting on pressure on the line, so that is a big win! There were 2 reps where he went past the jump, but that was a combo of him driving to the toy holder and your feet facing that way.
On the GO reps, you can throw the reward sooner: as soon as he looks forward, rather than wait until he is at the jump. He will look back at you if it I not thrown by then 🙂
>>He did great when he didn’t realize the toy was pre-placed, but we failed twice after that so I had Carole stand out there with it. >>
The placed toy was definitely trickier, because he was locking onto the toy. It is likely that the toy placements (especially with someone holding it) have always been paired with going directly to the toy – so to make it easier for someone to hold it/throw it or have it placed, you can build in a lot of balance reps and use a marker. For example, on this rear cross game, you can have the toy in the same place (or held in the same spot) but on some reps you cue a GO or a FC wrap. Then you can throw a different toy or the holder can throw it. And, you can add in a marker which says the placed toy is now available (like a ‘get it’) to help eliminate the confusion about when to go to it or not.
You can tweak the game a little so you are right at the end of the tunnel when he is exiting, to be moving forward to get onto the RC line. That will add more opportunities for him to work closer to you, plus it will show the RC line sooner. At :46 and 1:29 the physical cue was not showing RC and he was turning to the toy 🙂 The rep at 1:07 was actually really good even though he turned left (when you wanted a right turn RC) because all the physical cues said left and he was watching the cues. Yay!
He did really well at 1:43 and 1:51 where you had some good pressure on the line! So we can keep adding the pressure (you don’t need to do RCs every day though 😁) and also mix in FC and GO lines too as you now start to jog up the lines to add more speed.
On the 2nd video:
He was having trouble reading the serp line a bit at first – he might have needed to see more upper body rotation or be a little more in front of the jump. Sometimes they just have an anti-serp day LOL but then he got it after a few reps. The tunnel reps were easy for him! He did well with the placed toy for the threadle but this is another place to add a marker to tell him when to get the toy.>>I honestly thought I was standing in “threadle position” for those,>>
Yes, you can be a little further over by the entry wing so half of you is visible outside the wing, that will help when you add motion.
>>The stays are still a work in progress. I am trying really hard to stay connected, but not sure I did that great of a job.>>
You can try 2 things to make sure you are not pairing arm movement (he released on that a couple of times) or re-connection with the release:
– you can walk to your position waving your arms and looking back and forth, like you are leading a marching band LOL! And while that is going on, say the verbal release. So basically, it is all movement all the time and not an individual movement paired with the release.
– you can lead out holding a very full cup of water in the dog-side arm, and release without spilling the water. That will tell you how much arm movement is happening on the release, because you will feel the water on your hand 🙂Do this on just a one jump lead out so you can work those without any complex discriminations. Let me know how it goes (it will all be entertaining LOL!!) Great job here!
TracyHi!
>> If I want her to go left I need to push my left boob forward😂>>
Yes, turns out that agility is mainly where our boobs are pointing LOL!!!!
The session went really well and I think the line was much clearer. So did she, based on her responses! yay! And she was definitely happy with the little sparkle balls!!!!
Next session: run more! That will really make it feel more comfy. But with that in mind:
>Taq says please give us something else to do!>>
Yes, you can give the RCs a little break and let latent learning kick in for both of you and play some of the other games 🙂
Great job!
TracyHi!
>>Like for the exercise I did tonight, I don’t have a verbal so I didn’t really know what to use besides ‘here’ to get Kashia’s attention. >>
I think using here worked well for the first session! It is a new concept for her, so using a familiar word was very effective. The new verbal can be added later. And it will be whatever you want your threadle verbal to be, because it is the same behavior for the dog (threadle slice) even though the context is different.
On the video:
Good reward throws and reset cookies when there was a blooper! I think the thing that will help the most is her line up position:
Be sure she is on the angle facing you when she is sitting and not facing the bar of the 2nd jump if you wanted her to come to the backside (because if she is sitting looking at the bar, she might automatically got to the bar).That includes when she was between 1 and 2, and also when she was on the takeoff side of 1 – the goal is that she is setup to have a straight line to wherever you want her to go: straight line to your hand for the forced front cross or threadle, or straight line to the bar of 2 when you wanted her to take it on the balance reps). When she was set up on the angle facing your hand for the backside, she nailed it each time! The bloopers were when she was set up facing the bar of 2.
An example of setting her up to be looking at the line to your hand and not to the bar of 2 is at 1:29, and you can see she has a pretty straight line to the backside. Yay! That helped take out any questions she had 🙂
And when you did want her to take the front side of the jump on the balance reps, she was facing the bars and had no questions there either.
Nice work here!
TracyHi!
I think it was a processing question more than anything else. The toy brings a higher arousal and trying to process wrapping the wing with the tunnel right there was toooooo much (processing the visual, the behavior being cued, the being outdoors, and being in higher arousal.
She couldn’t do *all* the behaviors required in the moment (wrapping, ignoring the tunnel, handling the external environment, handling the internal environment especially if the cue to wrap was not perfectly clear, finding the jump, tugging.) Pretty normal adolescent brain challenges!
The further she was from the tunnel when you asked for the wing wrap (like when you wrapped the other way), the easier it got for her – probably reduced the processing challenge. And she found the jump really well – that is an behavior she has a strong learning history with (as compared to wrapping the wing to set up layering with the tunnel there outdoors :))
And I think food also reduces the processing challenge because it probably produces a slightly more centered arousal state.
So what you can do is assess toy use depending on the context. You can start each session with tugging because we do want to help her learn to work in the higher states of arousal. Then you can decide what to do next:
If it is a behavior that she is experienced with and you are indoors, it should probably be fine to keep using the toy.
If it is a behavior she is experienced with and has also done outdoors successfully… probably a good toy behavior.If it is a new behavior, especially outdoors? The first session or two might go better with food rewards, to open up more bandwidth for processing everything else. You can use a lotus ball or treat hugger, so the food can be thrown and there is still a toy-like element to it (balancing arousal states too!)
And when the new behaviors are not new and easier to process, I am sure she will be able to use the toy for the full sessions 🙂
Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
I think the zig zags are going well! As you flatten it out, I think the 4 foot bars will create too much distance for her to bounce effectively, so I think the weaves will be a good option! This is a hard game physically, so she really only needs to see it once a week.
Lookin at the sequences:
On the first video:
She seems to have a great start line stay so we use it even more on the very first sequence! You can lead out more on sequence 1 so you can set the line from ahead of her. Ideally you can be 2 or 3 steps past jump 1 to release and set the line, rather than have her drive ahead. You were at the wing of 1 which doesn’t show 2 as well, so she was driving ahead on a different line. Moving the jump to make the line easier helped her for sure but you can also use your lead out to set the line to 2.The BCs looked great! The throwback at 3 also went really well: you exited it with a spin/blind cross, which set up a rear on the tunnel. You can also set up a front cross exit by keeping her on the same arm as the throw back arm (right arm, in this case) so you can send to the tunnel and get up the line.
The only hard part for her was the lead out push. I think it was a positional question – you were stationary and at jump 3. A more ideal position for the lead out push is on the landing side of 2 and not near 3. You can be standing on her line on the landing side of 2 and start to move forward to 3 after you release her. That should commit her to 2 and show the line to 3.
On the 2nd video:
Adding the motion from the tunnel helped her see the line to jump 3 better and the blind on the landing side worked well! The blind on the takeoff side worked great too 🙂After the blind on either side, be sure to maintain strong connection so she sees the next jump. You will want to be looking at her and moving to jump 4 until you see her look at it and lock onto it.
You had great connection at :13 so she found the line. At :20, you turned forward so it actually looked like a blind cross cue, so she went to the blind cross side.
You were better with the connection after the blind at :27 and :33 (and :54 and 1:01 on the other side) but she needed one more step of connection towards the jump so she could lock onto it. You moved the jump at :40 but you also held the connection longer, so she got it. I don’t think the position of the jump made a huge difference for her (she missed it in the same position on the rep at :54) so it is all about the big connection for more steps after the blind to lock her onto the next line.
Great job here!
TracyHi!
She did well finding the jump here! I think some of her questions came from lack of motion: you were not moving a lot and had BIG connection so she was like: I am supposed to come to you, or look forward? So you can definitely add more speed (jogging for example) and be connected but it can be softer in that your eyes are on her and you can see her, but dogs side arm can be less back (point it to her nose rather than open it all the way back so your shoulders are rotated less towards her).>>Is it a concern that she’s looking at me on every rep instead of straight ahead?>>
She will get better and better at looking ahead and not at you, but we can also help her. I think the first step is a placed toy or target, so she has a different visual to lock onto. After she does a bunch of reps to the target, you can fade it but moving it further away and going to a thrown reward. The timing of the thrown reward is as soon as she looks forward (which might happen at the tunnel exit). That way she is looking forward before arriving at the jump – if you wait too long to throw, she might look back at you because there is nothing else to look at 🙂
>>I don’t think I showed her the picture with me ahead and lateral as much as I could have. It felt like a bigger distance in real life than what it looked like in the video,>>
No worries! I think the priority right now is getting her looking ahead, before you add more challenge with lateral motion or looking ahead. I think she will sort that out really quickly.
Great job!
TracyHi!
I am loving the jaunty music LOL!
He did well with the 3 variations here! The tunnel and threadle cues looked very distinct in terms of position and shoulders. You can rotate more on the serp so your feet are facing the tunnel but the enter of your chest is facing back to him. That way you can stay closer to the bar and still get him to come in. And plan the verbals before each rep, because I think the only errors were sometimes saying the threadle verbal when you cued the serp.
>>Notice I’m trying really hard to remember to reward everything. I tend to go into analysis mode when I screw up. Then I focus inward and forget to reward the dog.>>
Yes! The was great! We totally get in our heads to plan the next rep… but the dog perceives it as punishment (negative punishment, withdrawal of the possibility of reinforcement). So it is important that we reward and then figure it out LOL!
You can also add in rewards for the stay while you are moving because he is moving before the release word on several of these – I think he is moving on the eye contact before the release. At :16 and the rep after it where you made eye contact and praised then released was perfect. On. The other reps, you were releasing when you did eye contact and so he was starting to release with eye contact. As you move into position, make eye contact the whole time, praise, then release.
On the 2nd side -he did well here too! Super!! He actually was following the physical cue and took the tunnel on the first rep. If you watch it in slow motion, you were in serp position with your shoulders open (they can be even more open to him, so the center of your chest points directly to him, it was pointing to the tunnel here).
Then you released him and as he started to move at :03, you closed your shoulders forward which is the tunnel cue. You kept your shoulders open for longer on the next rep and he did the serp 🙂 And the next reps were clear too, so he was very successful.
Great job here!
Tracy
