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Hi!
>>the couch+standing gate made for a good chute and we’re doing flat and inclined klimb right now. He loves it.>>
Terrific! I am glad he loves it!!
Wow, his turn and burn is looking awesome!! tight turns and super fast!!!
Because he is doing so well, the next step is to add your wrap verbals. Iedally, you would have a verbal that means wrap-to-his-left and a different one that means wrap-to-his-right. Or, you can do a wrap-towards-me and a wrap-away-from me. Short sounds or short words are best for wraps, like checkcheckcheck and digdigdig (those are 2 of the most popular ones).
When you have chosen the verbals, you can then hold his collar, start saying the verbal… then send him to the barrel to start hte turn and burn.
You can also add the wrap verbal to the handling combo – send to to the barrel with the wrap verbal, then use your go go go to accelerate to the toy. He was great with the wrapping and ignoring the toy, when you tossed it behind you!! It was mentally challenging for him, when he took the toy for a quick run and then couldn’t quite bring it back at the end: “mom, I need a moment, that made my brain work REALLY HARD!” LOL! He was terrific, and those impulse control moments do often require we let the pups run around to help reset their brains after that difficulty of the game.
The handling combo looks great, so other than adding the wrap verbal, you can also do the FC to get a side change at the barrel before running to the toy – and you can also try the advanced level with the decel/pivot .
Great job!
TracyHi!
Congrats on your super successful weekend, both with Kaladin on course and with Lift on the road trip!!On the video – good girl for ignoring the massive disraction of her brother chewing a treat at the beginning! That is hard!
I think the initial setup was too hard – new location, space behind you, brother on the bed chewing, toy bin was a little too far from you. So when you reset it an took out some of those options, she was able to get things rolling and offered some good wraps!
At around 2:10, she asked for a decompression moment by trying to take the toy on a walkabout 🙂 You can help her reset the arousal there (because it is a hard challenge) with a bit of tugging and throwing the toy around, then you can ask for more wrapping. Those decompression moments canhelp her think through the challenge, especially in new locations. She had some really good turn and burn moments at the end too – that was really lovely because doing it all in the new place with new distractions was hard!! Good girlie!
When you get home, you can start with the turn and burn using her familiar barrel – and if she is happy with it, you can start adding your wrap verbals.
Great job here! Safe travels home!
Tracy
Hi!
I think the collection sandwich is beginning to take shape, and we can definitely help him out with somethings to get more hustle.If he is having trouble going back and forth from toys to cookies to toys, you can split that part out – start with a toy , then put it away and switch to cookies for the rest of the session (then go play with the toy at the end, but far from the cookies smells :)) That can help build up that skill – it is a hard skill!
For the game, I think clarifying where to find the start cookies and giving him the visual target to drive to at the end will make a difference – and a food bowl might be the answer to both!
You can can start each rep with the cookie in the food bowl, and you can send him to it from 6 feet away (or further, if he really loves to drive to it). As he is arriving at the bowl, you can start running away – he DEFINITELY liked the more motion i nthe 2nd video than the calmer motion in the first video! That way, when he sees the added motion, he will drive towards you with a lot of speed and that will allow you to do the blind followed by the early decel, then pivot.
Then after the pivot to drive ahead:
he definitely liked the prop but didn’t really have to accelerate to get to it, probably because it is hard to throw LOL! Instead yu can use the empty food bowl that is already there: accelerate to it and the cookie reward goes into it.Let me know if that makes sense! I think that can smooth things out for him 🙂
Nice work!
TracyGood morning!
> I have added in the resilience games and a sort of snuffle mat thing at the end of each session.>>
This is great! And sometimes you can just go back and forth between tugging and a snuffle mat, so her physiology ‘rehearses’ bouncing back to baseline/
Looking at the rear crosses:
>>She doesn’t understand what I want and I am not sure what I can do differently.>>
If you freeze the video on each rear cross moment (see below) you will see that for most of them, she had already arrived at the prop and started turning towards you before you started the RC info. So to her, it looked like the turn and burn game (front crosses) on the prop. Which is why she had the same response as when you play turn and burn 🙂
On 2 of the reps (1:16 in video 2, 1:32 in video 3) the RC info was starting before she arrived at hte prop, so she turned the correct direction.
So in the next session, move the prop further across the room so there is more distance between your starting point and the prop. And do a bit of parallel path warm up like you did here, that looked great! Then try the rear cross, with the goal being that you cut behind her sooner, so she sees you on the new side when she is at least a full stride away from arriving at the prop. That should help! And if you are too early and she doesn’t touch the prop? No worries 🙂 reward anyway 🙂
Here are the RC moments to freeze on the videos:
Video 1 –
:36, :44, :54, 1:08 124, 1:34Video 2 –
:59, 1:08, 1:34, 1:46Video 3 –
:33, :44, :55, 1:12, 1:43, 2:03, 2:14>>Two sedate ready dances earned me some instant feedback. She nibbled at my knee! And then later grabbed my pants. I feel bad that I am frustrating her, or causing whatever emotional state that generates the gentle attachment of poodle teeth to clothing.>>
She probably needs an outlet for the ready dance, which can be practicing it with a toy in your hand so you can then let her tug hen the arousal state changes. That can protect your clothes and flesh 🙂
Nice work! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! You are doing great – definitely not behind! And it is good for the pup’s resilience to take days off – it helps the body rest and reset 🙂
Tracy
Good morning!
She did really well in the new location! Her engagement and responses were basically the same as you have at home: SUPER!!!
After the blind crosses on the first video, be sure you decelerate almost immediately. You were running til she was very close to you then doing the decel into the pivot a little bit at the last minute, so she had to slam on the brakes. Decelerating sooner (after her first of second stride towards you) then doing the pivot will give her time to coordinate the collection into the turn.
She did a great job with wrapping her box then driving to the toy! SUPER!!!
On the 2nd video, the parallel path looked really strong too. For the rear crosses being close to the prop made it easier for you to show the rear cross line, and she did great! YAY!! When you don’t want to do rear crosses, you can practice this game with more and more lateral distance.
Super job on these! Remember to build in a day off here and there so she isn’t doing this stuff every day – we want to let her brain reset in between training days (lots of science behind the physiology of stimulation so we want to give the body a day or two to not ‘work’ so it can reset itself for baseline.
Great job here!
TracyI am glad he did well with his bed in the kitchen!
For jumping up at treats or toys in your hands, you can try 4 things in the training sessions:
– in the transitions, like when you are removing the toy/treat and moving into offering or a cue, you can give him a bridge behavior of tossing a treat on the ground for example, which can give you a moment to get the toy and treats situated for the training or next rep.
– keep your hands quiet when you are holding the toys/treats during training and while he is offering. The quieter your hands are and the less they move around (for now), the easier it will eb for him to ignore what is in your hands,
– having the treats or toys less visually present can help too, even if it means putting your hands behind your back for now. Eventually we will be able to have them very visually present, but starting them a little less prominently can help him learn to ignore them
– add in specific verbal markers for when the reward is available from your hand A marker for “now you may take the toy” and “now you may have the treat” can really clarify when he should try to engage the reward versus when he should not engage it.
Let me know how he does!
TracyGood morning!
Good job getting toy play in the yard!
When you send to the barrel, stand totally still and let him offer – he was trying to figure out how to go around it and move away from the toy, so the more stationary you are, the easier it will be for him to offer moving.You had a lot of pointing and verbals and moving, which drew his attention entirely back to you, so he was watching you and not considering offering on the barrel.
>>I decided to take a step back and try the Wrap exercise using the tug toy, which I had not done in the past.>>
This was a really smart training moment! Yay! You recognized that there was a step that could help him and switched to that without abandoning the session, and then he was really successful. Click/treat to you 🙂
Note the difference on the second video, where you were a lot quieter and more stationary, and he was able to offer a lot more! He is better when turning to his right on this, so you can do a couple of reps in a row of turning to his right before asking him to offer to his left. He did get it really well! You were moving the visual of the toy away a little more and that helped too!
For the next session, repeat what you did here on the 2nd video (but with more right turns to get started before asking for left turns) and then I bet you will be able to add in turn and burn really easily.
Great job!!!
TracyGood morning!
Seems like EOTT is going well!!!
The first rep was super hard because between you moving to the position and the big toy, the had target was not as clear til after she was on her way to the toy.
You were clearer o the 2nd rep (and it was to her stronger side like you mentioned). On the 3rd rep, you were stationary before she finished finding the treat and that made a world of difference – she was not processing motion, so she could much more easily “see” the hand target. She drove directly to it on that rep, and also on the last rep where you were stationary and she was moving to her less-strong side. SUPER! And a big gold star to her for ignoring the giant dangling tug toy, in favor of hitting the little target. NICE!!!
You can move to adding an empty food bowl as a reward target on the ground and then the toy can eventually be the reward target on the ground.
How is she doing in the amped up EOTT environment?
Great job here!
TracyGood morning!
Tugging on the first video then the treat scatter went well! And the strike a pose game went really well too – he drove right into the target hand on both sides, and good job getting the reward placement across you, so he got the 2nd turn of the serpentine line too 🙂 And back to tugging at the end (looks like throwing the toy was a good way to re-engage after all the cookies :))
I didn’t see any overarousal moments with the toy or any humping 🙂 on this clip – just really good transitions and training mechanics. YAY!
You can do th strike a pose game now with a toy as the reward – a cookie toss starts the game (or a stay) then the toy is the reward after hitting the target, placed just like you did with the treats here
Lap turns are looking good – remember to see your feet together until he arrives at your hand, then move the hand and foot back together to set the turns, When he as turning to his left, your leg was back too early on the first couple, which tends to get the pups turning towards us (and not away). Then after that, you starting moving your leg later, and he was Abel to turn the new direction easily.
Tandems looked great! You had one rep where you moved your hands too high and a little too fast, so he didn’t turn – but all the other reps were slower and hands were lower, so he was great!
Adding the prop went well too! He was able to find it easily after the turn away. With the lap turn here, delay the foot step back til he is a couple of inches from your hand – when you were too early, he didn’t turn away but when you were slightly later: perfect!
And the toy play looked harder for him here in this session, but he didn’t get overaroused from what I could tell (not grabbing or humping).
>>although I continue with my struggle to get him to tug with me. Sometimes it seems to me he is looking for the food.>>
I agree, I think it is hard for him to tug in a smaller area where there is sooooo much food scent on the ground and in your hands. You don’t suck at it! Even training in another room or moving from room to room to split the area between cookies and toys will help! And being able to train outside will help too. The main focus is the arousal regulation, and he did well here (bearing in mind that since he is entering adolescence, that might not always be the case LOL!).
Nice work!
TracyGood morning!
Tugging on the first video then the treat scatter went well! And the strike a pose game went really well too – he drove right into the target hand on both sides, and good job getting the reward placement across you, so he got the 2nd turn of the serpentine line too 🙂 And back to tugging at the end (looks like throwing the toy was a good way to re-engage after all the cookies :))
I didn’t see any overarousal moments with the toy or any humping 🙂 on this clip – just really good transitions and training mechanics. YAY!
You can do th strike a pose game now with a toy as the reward – a cookie toss starts the game (or a stay) then the toy is the reward after hitting the target, placed just like you did with the treats here
Lap turns are looking good – remember to see your feet together until he arrives at your hand, then move the hand and foot back together to set the turns, When he as turning to his left, your leg was back too early on the first couple, which tends to get the pups turning towards us (and not away). Then after that, you starting moving your leg later, and he was Abel to turn the new direction easily.
Tandems looked great! You had one rep where you moved your hands too high and a little too fast, so he didn’t turn – but all the other reps were slower and hands were lower, so he was great!
Adding the prop went well too! He was able to find it easily after the turn away. With the lap turn here, delay the foot step back til he is a couple of inches from your hand – when you were too early, he didn’t turn away but when you were slightly later: perfect!
And the toy play looked harder for him here in this session, but he didn’t get overaroused from what I could tell (not grabbing or humping).
>>although I continue with my struggle to get him to tug with me. Sometimes it seems to me he is looking for the food.>>
I agree, I think it is hard for him to tug in a smaller area where there is sooooo much food scent on the ground and in your hands. You don’t suck at it! Even training in another room or moving from room to room to split the area between cookies and toys will help! And being able to train outside will help too. The main focus is the arousal regulation, and he did well here (bearing in mind that since he is entering adolescence, that might not always be the case LOL!).
Nice work!
TracyGood morning!
The narration on the video was great LOL!
The handler of the dog before he was LOUD and also those big loud NO NO at the end… well that was hard! I think you also send something like “I am not going yet” because of the end of run ruckus of the previous dog – that was appropriate, I would not have started the lead out process either.
The run itself went great. She seems faster in trials than she is at class which means your cues have to happen sooner & faster. And at the stage of running her, you are probably splitting your focus between “what is she going to do, behaviorally, on contacts, etc” and getting the info to her super early.
So everything you described as having gone wrong just goes back to the cues being late. When she is moving that fast, she is going to make choices earlier (jumping, lines, etc). And the hard part of running an inexperienced dog who is fast like Sprite is that she needs the cues early, but she also needs extra time to process them because she is still learning to work in that environment.
So if you feel like running an inexperienced dog at the beginning of her career is hard? I agree! It is hard! And it gets easier for you both 🙂
Good job accepting the line up even though she was slightly sideways. Her brain (the back of it, in charge of emotions) might have felt a bit unsafe after the ruckus of the handler yelling at her dog as Sprite entered the ring. So that part of the brain was in biological ‘stay safe’ mode and would not allow Sprite to turn away from that person/dog entirely.
>>I tried to play either her, but I struggled to get her attention.>>
Yep, her amygdala was probably temporarily in charge there – stay safe! Stay safe! But that was only a couple of seconds then she was back into a pretty good attentional state.
Looking at the middle of the run:
>>Then, I didn’t cue the turn from 4 to the teeter and she locked on a line clear across the ring. >>
At 1:34, you were accelerated and facing the line, so the cues told her to do exactly what she did. Good girl! She came back to you (find my face!) with a “we nailed it!” expression on her face 🙂
>>A few bars fell. Might be slipping versus just not paying attention to her form versus late information. >>
Looking at the video: late information. She was totally paying attention and she was not slipping. The first downed bar was at 1:35 and she saw you slam the brakes as she was in the air, so she dropped her feet but it was too late to adjust the jumping or line commitment.
The 2nd bar down was at 1:45 and it was a conflicting indicator there too: you had decelerated (which predicts turn) then as she took off, you said “poles” and accelerated. So she tried to adjust.
I am not sure if you wanted the tunnel after the weaves, but you were moving and facing it as she was exiting the weaves, so she was correct to go to it.
Gorgeous handing line from the end of the weave area to the a-frame. Wow! That is a look into what is coming soon at trials! So great from both of you!
>>We need to work on RC as she turned the wrong way on the jump after the AF.>>
Yes – late info 🙂 At 2:13 when you released her from the frame and cues the jump, you were on the right turn side of it and moving forward on that line – the RC info did not start til after she took off, so she could not adjust til landing. Ideally, you would be closer to the frame and even a little further ahed before you release, so you be running to the center of the bar to set the RC before she has to make a takeoff decision.
But even with these little bloopers (and they really are little bloopers, due to getting used to her speed and being in the trial environment) – note how she never shifted into overarousal, she always was able to ‘find you face’ and was easy and happy to re-start for the next session. The contacts and weaves looked fantastic!!! YAY!!!
So looking at the before-run and entry to ring moments:
>>Not sure what else to do to get her to pay attention as we walk in.
>>She’s still very distracted in the ring.She is definitely finding that being near the ring while the dog before her runs is hard, and the moments in front of the jump before the line up is hard (she is not finding the line up itself to be that hard, all things considered, and that is GREAT!)
So for a general “what to do” – this waiting ringside while exciting dogs run needs to be practiced in class while the exciting dogs run 🙂 I don’t think she is that strong in class with this skill yet, so it makes sense that it would be harder in a trial. So at class, seize the rehearsal opportunity and start playing your pre-run games while her exciting friends are finishing their turn.
If my memory is correct, doesn’t she have a couple of exciting and maybe loud Aussies in her class? You can use these canine friends to help rehearse these moments right before the ring entry. Start as far from them as needed but even if she is not perfectly controlled, no worries – practice makes pathways! And you will see the arousal regulation kicking in more and more.
In a trial, for today (for example) – you can keep her a little further back then move into the ring quickly when they need you in… but no need to rush into the ring or get close if the person before you will be screaming NO NO at their dog (I mean, I would not bring my novice dog into the ring if that was going to happen! If the judge says anything (which I doubt he will do) you can just tell him that the other handler was screaming at her dog and it is unfair for your dog to be subjected to that, in a trial environment. It is a pretty classic example of why it is sometimes perfectly fine to delay entering the ring.
If you are running today you can do a little experiment outside the ring – try a snuffle mat while the previous dog is running. And as that dog is finished, maybe your videographer can grab it while you move into the ring. That might help her out in that situation a lot!!
And, interestingly – she is more stimulated and frustrated here with the leash on… so when you get into the ring, take the leash off as soon as possible. She is a little less aroused with it on. Take it off and go into the line up and see how she does!
Overall I think she is looking fantastic! And if you run today – maintain the lovely connection you had here, and if she goes off course, assume it was a late cue 🙂 and carry on like you were doing.
The one piece that she is struggling with is the piece that is the least rehearsed (waiting while exciting dogs run) so we add that piece to the puzzle and boom! It all comes together 🙂 and that is really exciting!
Let me know how it goes today!
Tracy
Good morning!
This went well! The tunneling had the intended effect of really stimulating him so you could then challenge the stay behavior to see if he can do t in rial-like arousal.He could line up beautifully. A sit on the flat ended up being a down (we can blame his BC heritage for that LOL!). And it is good info because if you want this sit stay in this context, you can use your line up which seemed super solid in all reps.
And adding the silly lead out also was fine for him, no problem at all holding the stay. Super!!! Aroused, yes. A little twitchy here and there? Yes, but still really successful with the stay behavior.
At 3:10 he did have a question – he had done the game had a good jump, you said yes, and moved the toy… then asked for a middle line up. He was confused and was looking around. The line up was out of the regular context so it didn’t make as much sense to him there.
He was able to do it, but it falls into the category of conflicting indicators: everything about the context leading up to the moment and the way you were praising/moving seemed to indicate toy play coming… then the line up cue conflicted with that so he needed a few extra moments to process it. That is similar to when our physical and verbal cues don’t match, so the dogs need to try to sort us out 🙂
You can also do this with targeting on a plank for lots of quick, high arousal reps of end behavior on contacts!
And, is it also great for end of run behavior: 10 tunnels in a row, then praise and run over to the leash, then onwards to the reward station.
Great job here 🙂
TracyHi!
>> He doesn’t like it and lays his ears back when I ask him to “walk” (not pull). I want that to be more positive.
Yes, definitely add toys/treats when you arrive to the destination but also you can use treats or toys along they way, if he is pulling and there is conflict when you want walking and he wants pulling 🙂
>>I’ll also practice all the outside the ring behaviors more regularly at home.>>
Practicing these get and behaviors away from agility and with increasing levels of arousal (also away from agility) will help when you are outside the ring at a trial. The proofing with arousal game can be helpful for that, and the behavior you “proof” can be eating treats, for example.
>> Once Liz is back from EOTT I’ll see if we can get some people together that he can watch doing agility so we can practice. He’s been to a couple of seminars where he’s better but far from where I hope to be so maybe I can conquer these smaller scenarios first.>>
Great! Seminars (even if you just audit), classes, etc – all are great build ups to trials. Keep me posted about how he does!
Tracy
