Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Hi! Good job here with the TSA Game – good job with the setup and I think this is looking really good!
Definitely rehearse this at home a lot where there is not as much arousal so it is not just at the training field.
>>It’s our first try at putting it all together so looking forward to your feedback.>>
It is more about interpreting his feedback and he did great here!!!
>>I felt his arousal and focus go up as we got close to the gate so that is really good to know>>
Yes for sure! I feel that with all of my dogs too 🙂
>>I tried adding in a few extra volume games there with food to get him focused back. >>
The arousal shift might be a good thing, though! We need a pretty high state of arousal to run great agility 🙂 We won’t really know til we try this with more dogs and people around.
The order of festivities looked good here! He was definitely engaged and ready to go into the ring, and I can see this being what you do in a trial setting.
>>Oh yea, sorry the leash coming off and going on wasn’t in the video, but he seemed to do really well with that part.>>
It seemed like it all went really well!
The next steps are to take it to a situation where other dogs are running, like in a class or group training so you can play with this with the distraction of other dogs doing agility. So, try it the next time you are with your training group or in a class and see what he says! Don’t be afraid of that higher arousal – that might be a very good thing! If you feel he is overaroused, too stimulated by the dog in the ring (not engaging with you, obsessing on the other dog, for example) you can add more distance and do more pattern games or experiment with volume dial with food or toys. Sometimes it makes perfect sense (like food is better than toys in that moment) but sometimes the answer is counterintuitive, like the toy is a far better choice, or tugging on the leash. He will let you know!
Tracy
Hi!
Correct, I don’t teach the RDW because it is all-consuming LOL!! And it is too different for each dog – most of the really good running dog walk courses are taught by people who only do RDW courses 🙂
My big beef with the way most RDW training is done is that it takes too long to get the correct angle of the down ramp and height of the dog walk – what he is doing here with the low plank is nothing like what his actual striding will be, and I don’t want to do the 10,000 reps required at each step of the way whenever the angle changes. So I personally would get the plank on a low dog walk and do a couple of sessions to get the foot targeting and back chaining it across the dog walk (some turns, yes, but we really don’t see this incredibly tight turn exits so no need to worry too much about them at this topping). Then raise the dog walk and get to full striding as soon as possible – that is where the real training is.
Since you are using the mat, have you tried Katarina Poplidnik’s course? I have heard good things. And I think there are a couple of other good ones out there, I can poke around if you want.T
Hi!
>>I was also thinking I could probably set something up with the larger group to make it more like a fun match with an entry gate, dogs in line, pretend judge, etc. Not as good as FEO/NFC, but maybe helpful? I don’t know of any fun matches locally.>>
Great idea!!! Brilliant! And I know a lot of the locals have young dogs that need this too. Maybe ask Suzie and Keith, who also have youngsters?
>>I was also wondering when working through the NFC work, do you move forward within one trial if the dog is successful or do you try and keep the same routine through the trial you are at?>>
It depends on the dog of course 🙂 If the dog is pretty much the same as he is a home training, then yes, I might go to the next step that same day. If things are a little harder for the dog, I will take longer to go to the next step.
And because our goal is to support the dog and because he is going to get rewarded – if you decide to try the next step and it turns out to be too hard, no worries at all! Nothing is ruined LOL!! You can go back to the previous step on the next run.
Tracy
Hi!
Thanks for posting these – I am glad you had some good daylight to play!
Looking at staying on the table and how it works into your training goals – Based on these videos, I am not sure it is helping you get where you want him to be. I agree that he did well with the sequences, but I think also that it is rehearsing some undesirable behavior outside the ring that you will want to steer in a different direction.
So if you want to work sequences in high arousal, do it with tugging and crazy tricks or maybe have him run through the tunnel 10 times in a row LOL!
But for outside the ring behavior, I don’t think the table behavior or the tie out is going to help him outside the ring at trials. What is happening on the table here is that there is a lot of rehearsal of stress and frustration which is not what we want him to be rehearsing when seeing other dogs run in the ring (or when watching his housemates). I don’t think it helps your cause, in terms of outside the ring behavior. Here is why:
There is a lot of impulse control required for him to hold the down on the table while you run Marky. And that needs to be built up slowly with you nearby – he had a lot of failure here (or another way to look at it – a lot of rehearsal of undesirable behavior).
He immediately got off the table a few times and was immediately told to get back on it. It looks like he did eat a cookie but I don’t think it was an actual reinforcement LOL!Being tied looks pretty frustrating to him based on his body language and I am not sure we want that frustration associated with watching agility to his housemates right now, especially if he hardest thing is getting him to NOT watch movement of the dogs in the ring at a trial or not obsess on his housemates at home.
On the 2nd video, he did lie down for a bit on the table but ended up standing anyway – more importantly, though, look at all the stress body language – ears pinned, tight mouth, looking away, flattened posture, slooowwwww moving into position. So there is pressure/stress being built into watching other dogs run. Then when Marky was running, Vinny was moving and took off for a moment when you came back.
So if the goal is to get him to stay somewhat relaxed on a table while you work another dog, I suggest starting it in much smaller pieces such as he stays on the table and you walk away. The come back and reward – the reward for him in this scenario is probably the release from the table to do something. Then you can build up to him seeing you do a trick or two – and very eventually, he watches agility. That can be very systematic and sliced into small pieces, to keep the frustration out of it.
Or, someone else can run Marky while you work on playing with Vinny – and by ‘run’, I mean just a little jogging or a trick or something, then build up to more action.
The sequence was really nice on the first video! Timing and connection all looked good , and he was responding to everything beautifully! His only question was at 2:56 when he ticked the bar. You were cuing collection and rotated towards him, so he was driving to that line… Then you opened up back to the original line and he mad the adjustment in the air (bar tick). So to help answer the question, you don’t need to rotate towards him on that collection cue (verbal and brake arms) – you can rotate away from him. That should smooth it out!
The sequence on the 2nd video also looked really strong! Connection in particular looked lovely! On the wrap at 4:25, he had a similar question as the previous sequence: you did the same verbal and you rotated towards him, so it looked like you wanted him to drive to you right away rather than commit to the jump. To get smoother commitment there, you can be closer to the wrap wing so he sees the line better.
The other option is to turn him to the outside on that jump (to his right) which will set a lovely line to the last 2 jumps.
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
>>He was quiet in his crate unless someone walked right in front of the crate & then it was a normal kind of bark. >>
The barking might indicate that it is a hard environment , so you can crate them someplace where no one will walk in front of him, or have cardboard barriers in front of and on the sides of the crates. That way he is not rehearsing barking in his crate in stimulating situations.
>>In our first puppy class the teacher told me a pattern games – walk along on the leash & count, 1, 2, 3, put a treat down in front of him. 1, 2, 3, tx. Magic.>>
Fantastic advice from the instructor to introduce the 1-2-3 game. And you can also add the resilience pattern game (back and forth from week 3). Both pattern games really help the pups 🙂
On the videos:
His parallel path game is looking good! And so if the sending!
He only had one question about the sideways sending, which was when he should start going to the prop 🙂 So you can be more precise about when you want him to start the sending: keep your feet stationary during the ready dance, the move the foot when you do the send.
That will help with the countermotion too, because you will be able to start the send and be ready to move away as well. If he is struggling with countermotion, start a little closer to the prop so the value of it is very close to him – and make it easier for you to move away from it.
On the 2nd video – I see a big difference in him being happy to let you hold his collar! Yay! You had really nice mechanics of that tug-collar-throw. And he is happy to tug right on your leg and let you touch him when that is happening.
The harder part was giving the toy back – have you tried trading for a very low value cookie? We don’t want to lose the tugging but a cookie trade will get the toy back nicely.
He went back and forth from food to the tug toy really well on the blind crosses! The singles looked good and so did the double. He is definitely ready for you to go to the next steps (the collection sandwich from last Tuesday) which involves the decel, pivot and then accelerating for a thrown toy).
There was one turn and burn rep and it looked good 🙂 Feel free to start you FC earlier and earlier as he is wrapping his barrel.
Great job here!
TracyHi!
This setup worked really well for him, it was just the right amount of movement of the board. Try to keep the toy lower, just below his chin height – that is when he has the best balance and can shift his weight back. At :45 you did a 2-handed tug moment and that was perfect for this! You can do. the 2-handed tug and bend over a little, so he can tug with his head low and balance with his weight shifted backwards.
Great job!!
TracyYes, there is a definite sweet spot to the distance (especially at the beginning of each session) and it might change day by day. But I think the most important thing will be changing the reward placement, and getting it onto the prop and not in your hand anymore.
T
Hi!
On the video – she did well on the sideways sending here! Tossing the treat to the prop is fine to do like you did here, especially if you are seeing her be too locked onto your cookie hands. That will strengthen her commitment for sure – but one reminder is to try not to say “go” because “go” will mean something else entirely. I promise we will add more verbals but for now, you can use ‘hit it’ or something like that for the prop.
>>Should I try this with a toy instead of treat?
You can totally use the toy, but it will be harder to throw than the cookies. The toy will work better on the sending if she comes back to you for tugging.
>>Also if I am standing sideways, was I using the wrong foot?
Nope, you were good! The sideways sending is with the arm & leg closer to the prop (which is what you were doing here), not the arm and leg crossing in front of you.
>>I tried to work on the rear cross. I reviewed parallel path, then i tried to send her.
For the rear crosses, you won’t want to send her. Instead, you will be moving towards the prop like you did with the parallel path game, and as she gets ahead of you, you will cut in behind her. Now, if she is not getting ahead of you on the parallel path, you can try 2 things:
– you can start further away from the prop, then as she drives to the prop, you can throw the reward away out ahead of it to get her driving even further ahead.
– you can start close to her, and don’t move forward til she is ready. If you get too far ahead, she might just catch up to you can not drive past which will make the RC pretty hard.Then when she is driving ahead of you on the parallel path game, you will cut in behind her to the new side before she gets to the prop. Feel free to put a video in, so we can see what she is seeing with the cues.
Great job! See you in class later!
TracyHi! I am loving her toy drive!
She is going back and forth between the two toys really well. She is a tugging beast 🙂
Next step here: in the middle of the tugging, give her a very low value cookie. After she swallows it, back to the tugging. I think she will be fine with this, but it is good to try because we definitely want her to be able to go back and forth from food to toy to food.Great job!
TracyHi!
>>First she started out being a leaping Tasmanian devil even though she had been tugging like a maniac upstairs and this was the first thing we tried to do this morning. >>
Could be residual arousal from tugging upstairs? You can decompress her after that with a little snuffle mat action. And then to start the session here, start with food element then go to the tugging. She did get on the toy but it would be cool to not have the jumping moments 🙂
>>She’s not sending ahead easily >>
I think that was a space limitation question – she was waiting for you to start moving forward, and you were waiting for her to start moving forward, so there was not a lot of moving forward 🙂
Kind of like this:
You were getting her to do the RC at the end, so I bet next time you are at Fusion you can use the big long space to get a lot of driving ahead of in you on the parallel path game, which will make it a lot easier to add the rear crosses before she gets to the prop.
>>so I have the checkbox checked but am not getting email notifications for your responses,>>
That is odd! Maybe it is ending up in spam?
Turn and burn is going well! I think on the first rep she hadn’t really locked onto seeing the barrel yet so you did a good job to just reset her and ask again. She did well with the left turns! She needed more patience on the right turns – if you are too fast or too early to move away, you can reward while you reset her. Also, because the right turns are hard at the moment (and you can see she was getting frustrated especially when you were playing with your hands) – you can add a bowl on the exit of the right turn line to help her out
At 1:55 she communicated the left turn preference by offering left but then after the break as able to do the right turns more smoothly too. On any of the reps, she is also saying that she doesn’t like as much like the hand play to get her going. So if she has a question, you can totally add the bowl to help her and I think that all be perfect! So for turn and burn, you can have just 1 bowl out on the exit line. Then you can fade it further and further around back to your feet so it is no longer really part of the reward (then get rid of it entirely). My guess is she will not need that for more than a session or two.
>>Keep forgetting to get video of it, but we are working on having her tug closer to me and up my leg a bit. >>
Super!!!
>>And she’s gotten so much better at working through Kaladin barking in protest from elsewhere in the house. When she first came home she was incapable about thinking about anything else when Kaladin barked.>>
That is good too! Her brain is learning to prioritize the ‘work’ and the play, not his protests 🙂
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
TracyWow, she did super nicely on these videos!!! She is committing to her lines, following the handling, very focused. And FAST! Yay!!
The blind cross lead-out looked awesome!!!
And yes, keep working the germwn turn. The wrap looked good but you can also practice a rear cross slice on the backside.
You mentioned her not committing to some of the soft turn jumps… I think you meant the spot after the tunnel in the first video, for example (and a spot in the second video too?) On the jump after the tunnel, that was a connection blooper where you were running forward and pointing forward, which turns your shoulders away from the jump. So be sure to make connection to her eyes and keep moving to the jump (no pointing really needed) until you see her look at it. That should help get commitment 🙂
Nice work here!!
TracyHi! That sounds like a really hard environment! Yikes!!! I like your idea to keep her in the car more the next time you go there – we want her to be able to rest and relax 🙂
>>I was surprised how well she responded to the pattern games & the find my face game, but any delay in the game & she was back at it. >>
I’m glad she could respond during the pattern games!!! She was probably too close to the action/noise to be able to cope when they stopped, so keep playing but also add distance away from the massive distractions to help her out. It will get easier with more experience and a lower level of distraction 🙂
Tracy
Thanks for the update!! Hopefully her paw is all healed up and she can get back out on course! I’m glad the remote reinforcement games are going well 🙂
Tracy
Omg! This is such a great update about class!!!! You were supporting her and you can see the pieces coming together – SO EXCITING!!!!
Mix it up! Do the hard stuff like the engagement and leash stuff. But also balance that with easy, fast, fun sequences. The main goals are play and having fun 🙂
>>I will stop putting any demands on her for a start line and just make it all a game.>>
I think turning the pressure off on the start line will help a lot, and then you can add back the start line when she is ready.
>>Do the webinars you have this weekend address any additional games?>>
We have Brain Camp this weekend – some of it will be familiar, and some will be different, plus all the science stuff is amazing! The Advanced Sporty Brains will have the most new stuff.
And the MYOB webinars that start Dec 18th will also have a lot of new stuff and higher levels of stuff she knows.
Keep me posted!
Tracy
