Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Good morning!
Isn’t it fascinating when the dogs clearly show us a side preference in the turn and burn game? It is like they understand what we are asking but need to tell us that they have to do it in the other direction. Good for you for listening to her and changing sides – she did really well!
>>I think with some time to process it, she will understand better the next time.>>
Yes – some latent learning will help for sure (and I have found Whippets in particular to be magical in terms of latent learning). And also, if she still asks that question, you can put a bowl out on her line as a helper to give her a focal point as she figures out her coordination to her right.
You did this with food and it went well… time to do it with toys 🙂 It is fine to start with toys on her easy side (if it is still her easy side next time LOL!) and use food on the harder side, and build up to toys on both sides.
The countermotion is looking good! The first part is to her left, and she had no problems as that is currently her preferred side LOL! And the right turns also looked really good – both left and right looked pretty equal here. So now you can add a little more countermotion by moving the opposite direction one step sooner: as she is passing you, you slowly start to move the other direction. Keep your pace very slow for now, so your motion doesn’t catch her eye and draw her off the prop.
Parallel path looked great too – nice work started each side the same way (cookie on prop) then building up to tossing. She really seemed to have now questions. Thanks to your terrific dog training skills, she has made significant advances in looking at the prop and not at your hands in this past week! Super!!!
This game went so well that I think you can add more distance away from her laterally. This might mean using a wider space so you might need to take it outdoors 🙂 It will be harder to find treats in the grass, so start up close and easy like you did here and then gradually expand the distance. Big white chunks of rewards like string cheese can help too!
Nice tugging at the end! She really likes that milker! You can get a milker toy where the milker is attached to a bungee or something, so your hands can be a little further away from her choppers 🙂
Great job on these! Have a happy Thanksgiving!
TracyHi! A spreadsheet is great! And you are definitely not falling behind – all the games build up on each other, so they don’t have to be perfect before starting the next one.
Happy Thanksgiving!
TracyHi! This video is drive to handler – very nice! She is following the handling beautifully!
If possible, lean over more so that your hand is lower. Ideally you would have your hand low enough so her chin is parallel to the ground or even pointing downwards (and so she doesn’t reach up for the cookies). That will make the pivots even smoother!
For the next session, toss the start cookie further away – and take off and run more as she is getting it 🙂 That way you can get more acceleration from her, and then when she is maybe halfway to you, make big deceleration and put your hand in nice and low, so she can collect and drive to your side.
That will set you up really well for the ‘collection sandwich’ game we added last night.
Great job here! Let me know what you think! Happy Thanksgiving!
TracyHi!
Super nice tugging here! And excellent transition into the driving ahead. Click/treat to you for looking at her and being connected to her rather than looking at the toy.In the this video, she did not mind at all when you started moving forward – you were gradually adding your motion and it was perfect! She seemed very comfy to have you running and she was great about bringing the toy back. So as you keep playing this game, add more and more of your motion building up to trying to race her to the toy (and try to win the race :))
Great job!
Tracy>>But, your voice is in my ear a lot! Haha. 😛>>
Ha! You poor thing!
Even if you don’t enter, is it close enough to drive to do some games outside the ring?
T
Hi!
He is driving ahead really well! Getting the wrap was a little bit of a Goldilocks moment:First rep at 1:09 – you said “go” a few too many times, making the dig dig and decel too late so he was wide. Try no to praise him in hose moments – that confuses him – just tell him where to go next.
2nd rep at 1:54 – dig dig verbal started with better timing, but youhad too much decel by slamming the brakes, so he came off the line.
The 3rd rep 2:47 was much better in terms of both smooth decel and timing of the decel and wrap verbal, so he had a better turn there. Yay!Then good job staying connected on the way back down the line to the tunnel! When you pointed forward, it pulled him to the other side of the tunnel because pointing forward turns your shoulders away from the line. But on the other reps you stayed connected so he found the correct side of the tunnel really well!
The 2nd video is marked private – can you reset to unlisted?
Thanks!
TracyHi!
Sorry to hear your knee is still painful! Hopefully it heals up soon!I think Gemma was adding some good background music here, to make sure Sprite felt like it was an exciting session LOL! I think it went really well – a strong rehearsal of the line up game and her sits were quick and solid! And the little moment of pink panther at the end was GREAT – she held her stay and was blazing fast on the release… but also turned beautifully. Exciting to see her executing so well in higher arousal!
She seems really comfortable with this so the next question is: when is your next class or fun match or even a trial? It is time to start testing out different options on the road. I wish California was closer to Virginia, we could have some fun going to NFC trials together!!
>>he bar dropped because I deceled and I wasn’t clear which caused the back jump. She got rewarded for both as the point for Sprite is getting to the line and setting up.>>
Yes! The bar and the back jump were non-issues – just handling oopsies, so no worries (she did the best she could with the info :)) Great job rewarding!
Nice work here! Happy Thanksgiving!
Tracy
Hi!
Thanks for the update!!
>>We’ve been doing short leash work sessions – on with some behaviours, followed by off with easy behaviours. Keeping it short, empty hands, cookies in pockets. It’s been going pretty good. Introduced a jump into the picture today.>>
Awesome!!! Sounds like she is doing well!! You can bring this to class, keeping things short and fun 🙂
>>Her “engaged chill” I think it’s when she is leaning into me as we wait our turn at nose work or other places. We haven’t really had an opportunity to practice this at agility other than while watching dogs do agility at a trial. Do you think this is the engaged chill behaviour I should hope for when we are waiting our turn for agility runs?>>
It would be GREAT if this is the engaged chill! It sounds perfect! Next time you are around agility, try it and see what she says! Start far from the action and act like you are at a nosework class/trial and see what she does!
Have a good Thanksgiving!
TracyHi! Lovely work here, she is looking terrific!
The backing up is looking good! Backing up to the upside down bosu is really hard, so do fewer reps and then give her a break – you can see she was beginning to lose form on the last few reps (going sideways, not backing up as well) – it was probably a bit of fatigue when form changes. So, one or two reps, then a break, then a couple more reps, etc, will help her maintain her form.
The parallel path looks great, I love how she picked up big speed speed! Try to have your cookies ready, so you can throw then before she looks at you.
Because looking at the line is really important (and not looking at you :)) you can replace the click and praise with a reward marker like ‘get it’ so she gets the info that she is correct and to look ahead for the tossed treat. That should keep her looking at the line nicely!
Sideways and backwards sending and countermotion is going well too! You can start to leave sooner (not faster, just sooner because faster was causing her to not hit the prop as well). So as she is moving towards it, maybe one step past you, you can start walking the other direction – that way you can build up the countermotion even more without her wanting to chase the motion
The rep at 2:43 was nice example of earlier countermotion – you were going the other way sooner, but not too fast so she was very successful!
Rear crosses are the hardest skill so far – she was getting the idea here! Doing it on the prop gives us humans good feedback on if we are on time or not 🙂 At the start of the session on each side you were a bit late – the RC info was happening after she was just about arriving at the prop, so it was too late for her to make the turn. Then you started getting them earlier, and that really helped and she was able to get the rear crosses. Nice!
The trick for the rear cross on the ‘takeoff side’ of the prop is to start further back and closer to her, so you can show the rear cross pressure on her line sooner, as she is moving towards the prop. If you were too far away, either the RC info was too late or it ended up being like a rear cross/turn away on the flat (like at 6:40 for example). So ideally you would be very close to her so you can cut behind her tail when she is still a stride or two from the prop.
The collection games look really good! Super nice connection!! The more you decelerated before the pivot, the better she was able to turn – just be sure to pivot slowly (8:20 and 8:48 were the best examples of the slower pivots and she was super tight!) so her butt can stay in line with the turn.
Turn and burn also looked good, she is committing really well. To maximize the turns, two suggestions:
– use something bigger to go around, like a barrel, so she has to bend more to go around it (the jump upright doesn’t really produce as much of a turn).
– after your FC, keep your exit line parallel to the jump bar like you were doing at the beginning rather than moving away from it on a perpendicular line (like at the end of the session). Staying parallel will really encourage stronger collection, especially because there is countermotion involved.Great job here! Have a good Thanksgiving!
Tracy
Hi! All of the videos look great!
Video 1:
Nice job sending to the prop!! She has great value for it and hit it really well! When you added a little more distance, it was hard to see where you were looking – ideally you would be looking at her and not at the prop, to help support the commitment. If you were looking at her and she stil stopped a little short, you can move in a little closer to it for now.
As you noted in the video, turning to the right is hard!! On the last 2 right turn reps (1:47 and the following rep) you were great about sending then moving over as you stepped out of the send, to encourage the right turn. That really helped!!!
You can definitely add in the sideways and bckwards sending now, starting close to the prop. And for now, try not to say “go” because that will mean ‘straight line extension’ and this is a turn. You can say something like ‘hit it’ for now.
Video 2:
She was a superstar with the 2 bowls here! Easiest game ever, she says! I think when you stood up, she lost her frame of reference so ended up behind you on some of the reps. No worries – she is ready for you to add the upright in front of you for her to begin wrapping, so that will provide the frame of reference to stay in front of you.
She was great about going to the toys too! After all those cookies, she got right into the toys – SUPER!!
Yes, she is totally ready for you to add the upright for her to go around.Video 3:
Driving ahead is looking strong! This is the perfect spot for your go verbal! She was driving to the toy beautifully AND retrieving the toy (double gold star for retrieving!!). You might have to cheat to try to win one of the races, to see if she can dig in fo reven more speed to beat you to the toy 🙂Great job on all of these! Have a good Thanksgiving!
Tracy
Hi!
The turn-sans-burn looked great! Excellent patience from you to let her get to the finish line! She was stronger turning to her left at first, then figured out the right turns by the end too. Super! She was hilarious when she starting walking away with the leash LOL!For the timing of the front cross here, you can move the leash around the barrel a bit, so you are starting the FC earlier and earlier. When yo udo that, start with her turning to her left at first (starting on your right side) because that seems a little easier for her. Then you can do the other side in a different session.
And you can take it outside so you can add the ‘burn’ and do some running.
>>I started this with a tug. She lost her mind and focus.
I want to start teaching her to focus when she is aroused, and also not to bite you when you say “ready ready” like she did at 1:56. So rather than use the toy as the reward, maybe just have it in the room – can she still be thoughtful in the presence of the toy? Then you can have it in your hand or pocket… but still use the food rewards. Eventually you can work up to doing a little tugging before the session, then switch to food. The goal is to gradually introduce the toy so you can use it without her losing focus.
And with the ready word – you can say “ready” then give her a treat for keeping her feet on the floor and NOT delivering any tooth hugs. That way you can talk o her like that and she will resist temptation to chomp on you.
Great job here! Have a good Thanksgiving!
TracyOh wow, look at how well she is backing up! I am very impressed!!! She is backing up thoughtfully, with good head position, and onto a moving object… all with you not need to move to help her. YAY!!! A big click/treat to you both!
Since it seems that you are able to cue it with a hand cue, you can add a verbal cue if you like too: I use ‘beep beep beep’ like a truck backing up 🙂
The next step for this can be moving the tippy board onto a surface that will add a tiny bit of noise when she makes it move. That will start to prepare her for teeter training 🙂
Great job here!
TracyHi!
Here are two of my favorite places to get toys:
https://floridadogsports.com/product-category/dog-toys/
and
http://www.cleanrun.com>>. Also, any tips for a puppy that likes to grab my hands and arms when tugging (well anytime). She’s very visual and very stimulated by movement. Even with longer tugs she likes to go for my hands.>>
Longer toys that you can drag around on the ground for her to chase will help for sure, with something bit on the end that she can latch onto.
But also, I mix in a lot of treat stuff so we can teach her body to self-regulate the arousal and not use your hands as a chew toy 🙂 So I like to do stuff like tug tug tug then scatter some treats in the grass, or tug tug tug and then give the dog a snuffle. That way you can use a tug and not risk your flesh LOL!
Here is an example:
If you want to follow along with some similar pups, we have been doing this tug tug tug then chill out cookies with Shasta and Westerly in the live classes, as well as Elizabeth and Yuzu (both of the pups get really stimulated with tugging so we are helping them balance their arousal).
Let me know what you think! Happy Thanksgiving!
Tracy
