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Hi!
>>Are we going to have any rear cross work coming up?
Yes – there is some in the games package 3 coming on Monday, and there are more in Games package 4 too! The key is to be running forward to the center of the bar and he will pass you, rather than waiting for him to pass you and then show the RC (which will end up being too late).
T
Hi!
The bowls game is looking good! Now that she is predicting the pattern, you can go to soft treats that she can swallow rather than chew 🙂
The next step is to slide the bowls back more, so they are kind of behind your knees when you are kneeling like this – that gives her more of an arc to move along.
The next step after that would be to put an upright in front of you, nice and close, for her to go back and forth between the bowls.
On the decel/pivot game – you can throw the cookie a little less far away, then run! Vesper will LOVE if she sees you running when you call her. Then when she is halfway to you (or maybe less than halfway). You can decelerate and show her the cookie hand. That will help her learn to collect and turn after being in extension – definitely a valuable tool for a whippet! Great job keeping your cookie hand nice and low, as well as close to your leg – that helped get a nice tight pivot.
>>Feedback on our tugging welcome!
The tugging after the bowls looked great – long fun toy that she was chasing and the puppy sploot flop is awesome! That is part of her play style (most pups outgrow it, eventually) so it was great that you rolled with it and kept going. She seems to like being dragged around LOL!! And when you get the ‘out’, you can reward with the toy for more tugging.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! No apologies needed, these were all fast, fun sessions!!
The first video with the pre-games looked great! She was on fire to do both the foot target and the nose target. And, she was happy to get right back into the toy play, which is really terrific! We put the nose target away from a couple of weeks, while we do some work with the foot target 🙂
The focus forward to the toy looks really good! She is not a fan of the collar hold, so try hold the collar but not move her by the collar – so tug her back to where you want her to be, then gently take her collar… then go right into the game. If she is not facing the way you want to go, no worries – you can move your position and where you present the toy, rather than move her by the collar. That way she gets happier with the collar holding because it indicates a fun game starting, rather than being moved by the collar.
Adding running to the toy like you did in the 3rd video was great – she was ready for that step and left you in the dust (just like we want her too LOL!). And it looks like you were holding her but not moving her by the collar – and she seemed very happy with the gentle hold here 🙂
This is going well, so take it to new locations and make sure you start her on your left and your right side, so she is happy on both sides of you 🙂
On the sending: The ready dance got great engagement and her little foot touching is SO CUTE!!!! She did really well here. You an stay a little closer for now, so she doesn’t ask any questions about how far away from you she needs to go. And a nice low hand will help her be able to see the connection, which will support her one as well.
Since she loves the toy, you can play this game with the toy too, instead of cookies. And she seems ready for the advanced level, with the sideways and backwards sending to begin developing countermotion (just be sure to start nice and close to the prop, and look at the prop when you send her to it).
Great job here! Have fun at the trial!!
Tracy
Hi!
>>It’s been a challenge to get motivated to train agility after losing Annie,
That is totally understandable and relatable. The grief can make it really hard to do more agility!
>>but Mason and I had fun with these games. >>
YAY! I am glad it was fun! Mason is adorable!
>>I think it helps that we’re not doing obstacles, so we’ll probably follow the baby track for a while and see how that goes.>>
Yes, plenty of time before ‘real’ obstacles, which gives us time to figure out how to best train and handle him.
>>These went pretty well given that Mason prefers food over toys and prefers to play with toys by himself. I’m trying to build value for playing with toys with me, but we’re not there yet so I couldn’t get him rev’d up with toy play. >>
I see what you mean! He likes the toy you threw, a whole lot, and his focus forward/drive forward looked great! And he was interacting with you – playing NEAR you rather than tugging. So you can shape that into the more interactive style of tugging for sure:
Going with his like of playing near you – when he gets the toy, you can back away from him, clapping & praising, so he can do his happy dance with the toy and bring it towards you. And then you can do a little happy dance with your hands closer to the toy but not actually touching it, still backing away a little. I bet he will come forward towards you with the toy, and eventually we will shape it to being in your hands and tugging.
You can also get a super long fluffy toy, 3 or 4 feet, and let him play with one end of it while you hold the other end. You can wiggle the toy, you can slide it away from him, and then you’ll be tugging with him soon enough 🙂
>>I also have trouble getting the toy back. >>
Will he trade for a cookie (a low value one) then be able to go back to the toy? You can do a bit of playing near him then trade for a cookie for the next rep.
>>Mason just started bringing a ball back to me in the past couple weeks, but the ball isn’t very interactive and he doesn’t seem to care about a ball on a tug or ball with a handle tab. >>
A ball is a great motivator, so I have no problem with you using it because he likes it and brings it back! So as long as he doesn’t smash himself into the ground trying to get it, you can totally use it. Have you seen the toys. That Kong makes, which are basically variations on giant tennis balls? He might like those too 🙂
>>I like that he looked at the toy, ran to get it, and that I remembered to look at him. >>
Yes! All of it was excellent! You can add even more distance and motion. And we will gently shape our way to getting more tugging and retrieving going 🙂

The decel and turn game looked good! His stay us lovely and that makes it easier to play! His turn was a little better when he was on your right on the 2nd rep, because you decelerated sooner. He is young but he already has a big stride, so start your decel when he is about halfway to you (or sooner).>>Did he do the head turn, the weight shift, and change of focus from line to handler?>>
Yes, he was fantastic! Having your magic cookie hand low and in position nice and early really helped him focus and turn. Love it!
Great job here!!
TracyHi!
>>She was losing her zest for this game so I quit and will rework it tomorrow.
That is why adding in more toy play will help. I use toys during any session that has a lot of cookies, to be sure we keep the pups pumped up 🙂
>> Paul was helpful in my hand position.
Yes! Thanks Paul, you rock!
>> My handling is frequently off! My biggest challenge with agility, as well as being strongly one sided. From decades of obedience training.>>
No worries!! By starting with her as a pup, you will develop the handling she needs to see and soon enough it will feel smooth as silk 🙂
Tracy
Hooray for the sending! She didn’t try to bite you during the ready dance 🙂 and sent really well to the prop. SUPER!
On the forward sending at the beginning and then later at the end of the session, she wants to turn away from you -at first I thought it was because she was a lefty, but she did it to the right too 🙂 So my guess is either you have a spin trick or something where she turns away, or she was reading your position to turn that direction. So to help her turn towards you, you can put yourself off to the side more so she sends forward to the prop and then has a more obvious line to turn towards you.
She always turned towards you on the sideways and backwards sending, which is perfect.
Was she giving tooth hugs to the send hand? It was hard to tell on the video but I thought I heard you say “biting” ? If so, you can play this game with am empty hand to indicate the prop, or an open hand to indicate the prop. And stay nice and close to it for now so she can have an easy time going to it.
You can also add a toy to this game! I think she will like that excitement: you can use a cookie as a reward then break off for a tug party after every two or three cookies, or you can use the tug as the reward (and trade her for a treat to get it back :))
Great job!
TracyHi!
>> She slept on it, and nailed both sides this AM! Video soon. Minor “ready dance”.>>
Good girlie!!!! That is the thing I have learned about whippets – they are GENIUS with latent learning, the best I have ever seen. All dogs do it, but I have never seen it happen the way it happens with these whippets. We give them a halfway decent training session, then let them sleep on it. They come back to training in a day or two with a full understanding and already seeming to know the next steps. It blows my mind!
>>She’s been doing the two bowl game for a couple weeks, so clear on that. Paul is getting a jump standard out of the barn. We will video that too. >>
Awesome! Before going to the jump standard (thanks Paul!!), do some tall skinny upright, then we move it to a laundry basket. That allows us to smooth out any questions before we go to the ‘real thing’ 🙂
Tracy
Hi!
Hooray for pajama training! It is an important element of foundation work LOL!
She totally remembered her prop hits! Super! When you start sending, you can be closer to it at first, just maybe 2 feet or so. You were a little far at first, so she had some questions especially when her brother starting barking. Also feel free to use your arm & leg like you would when sending to a jump – arm & leg pointing to the prop and you can hold that position til she hits it.
When she is happy to send from up close, you can add some distance but distance is not that important right now – it is the drive to it that is important. And, starting nice and close, you can add the advanced level of the game with sideways and backwards sending, to begin developing countermotion 🙂 Just be sure to look at the prop as you send to it when you are sideways or backwards.
Great job with the 2 bowls and quality getting the next treat into the bowl. She totally had it! Excellent decision to move to the toys – you don’t want the game to get dull with too many reps, so since she had it so nicely, switching out after 30 seconds or so was perfect.
The toys were a little harder for her – was it that there was a lot of cookie smell lingering? Or was it that her brother was barking LOL! She definitely gets a little distracted when he is barking, I can see it on both videos so far (and on the wrap video below too). So you can move further from him and swing the toy around for her to chase, or give him a bully stick or something to chew on, so she doesn’t have to split her mind between figuring out the game and listening to her bro 🙂
And to test out whether the cookie smells made it harder to tug, you can switch the order and do tugging before cookies next time, and see how it goes.
Excellent job adding the upright to the bowls – pretty darned perfect! She is ready for the next steps on this:
– Move the bowls a little further back behind you, so she has more of an arc to make.
– While you are still on the floor, move the upright a little further away (doesn’t need to be too far, distance is not important right now).
– If that is easy, you can change your position to sitting in a chair but have the upright close to you again, and see how she does.
– If that is easy, you can try standing up!
Based on her feedback when you make each change (is she still happy to go back and forth) – you can probably do all of these 3 things in one session 🙂 If she thinks you have lost your mind 🙂 then you can take a couple of sessions to add these.Great job here!!! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
The strategy of when to run in closer to the line versus when to get way ahead will percolate over time as you get used to running him! On the smaller setups, running in closer to the line rather than big sending can keep you in motion better, rather than ending up too far ahead and decelerating with no place to go 🙂I’m looking forward to seeing you in Florida!!! Safe travels!
TracyHi!
That’s correct, we are not working loose leash walking. Ideally the pup leads the way, without pulling much 🙂If you find that the pup is pulling a lot, you can move further away, or be stationary so it is more like “world watching” 🙂
Have fun!
TracyGood morning!
>>Have all the confidence in the world that she will help herself to the chips once that leash comes off. >>
Have the chips in a closed container that is too big for her to grab – that way if she goes to them, she will not be able to eat them or run around with the container of them 🙂
it sounds like there were a lot of victories in class!! Moving through the crowd, using her Cato board, and staying in motion (invisible dog!) when she had a moment of disengagement in the first run – she came right back! And that all led up to a great second run. Happy dance!!!! Great job!
Tracy
Hi!
>>We did the pattern games and volume dial before each run. The one thing I noticed is the pattern game seems to get less interesting to him as practice progresses. So on the first run, he was really into the food. Before the last run, he said “no thanks, I want a toy or to run”. Should I try mixing things up more? Move from less interesting food to more interesting?>>
The lessening interest in food throughout the session could be any number of things… the pattern game is not as interesting as the sequencing, or he is simply full/not hungry, or he is doing find managing his arousal and doesn’t need the help, or the arousal is high enough that eating is not really something his body wants to do. Or all of the above. So you don’t have to do the pattern before every run in training – sure, see if he can still eat by giving a line up cookie or something as that can measure arousal. And observe his behavior – if the engagement and arousal and sequencing is great? No worries, no need to do a pattern game before every run. You can do a little snuffle mat decompression after each run or work session though, as a mental cool down. The pattern game can come into play if there are more arousing distractions, and you can also do it with 2 toys (one in each hand) as a variation of the up and down game, except he will be going back and forth between your hands for some tugging.
The sequences are looking good here! Some handling suggestions but he is responding really well to everything.
The first run was super good til you disconnected at the end – more eye contact will get him driving ahead. Much better on the 2nd run there, you had more direct connection and he nailed that last line!
>>I tried to keep going even when I knew my rear cross was pretty nonexistent and late. >>
Yes, you were great about staying connected and continuing because also yes, the RC at :43 didn’t start til he was in the air 🙂 On that line, you would need to move closer to 3 so you can then accelerate to the RC a lot sooner.
Nice FC on 3 at :57, that is a hard turn to get and he turned really well! That set up a good line to the tunnel. Be sure to walk the course so you know what your line in – as he was committing to the tunnel you ran to between the uprights of 6 so at 1:02 you were a bit on his line and that pushed him wide to 7.
On the opening of the next sequence, you had a little too much standing still at 1:11 at 2 s you ended up with a little zig zag 3-4.
He turned well on the verbal cue on the tunnel exit! But you turned too much before he committed to the jump, so he didn’t take it, Nice job just staying in motion 🙂 On that line to 6, watch his head – stay connected and near the jump til he looks at it, then you can start moving to the next line.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!!
>> It is so weird how I think I have my body in the correct place and then the video (I am pretty sure it was tampered with -HA) shows I did not.>>
HA! Yes, some bastard is tampering with our videos!! Also yes, what we think we are doing and what we are actually doing are often different, which is why I always reward the dog then figure out myself afterwards LOL!
>I like the cheese throwing a lot. It takes some of the pressure off of me which means it takes it off of her and we both have more fun. I will look for some good areas for the MM.>>
Tunnel threadle refreshers is a good thing – we have not touched on the skill in a while!! And the cheese throwing allows you both to relax and connect while gradually increasing arousal and motion. Fun!!
>>I would like to take you up on the offer to put me into contact with some of the behaviorists about getting some supplements/medication etc. for Caper. I think it is possible that as the hormones leave her body she may get much better, but I don’t want to take the chance that something could happen in that time frame that would set us back or that it doesn’t happen at all Thank you.>>
I don’t think the hormones (estrogen, testosterone, cortisol etc) ever truly leave, but she will cycle through them less and maybe be better able to self-regulate. And, the behavior folks tell us that helping the dogs when they are still young will allow us to create the neural pathways we want, which is better for long term brain development. I recommend using the Behavior Vets people (www.behaviorvets.com) and in particular, Bobbie Bhambree (bobbie@behaviorvets.com) because she is a behavior expert AND an agility handler!!
Keep me posted!
TracyHi!
Poor Gemma!! Hope your vet can get her in and help her out!!
>>Seemed like forever. But, it probably wasn’t. I’ve mentioned the instructors dogs out before. She’s not likely to change.
>>Sprite pops at 10 on the weaves. She’s holding the entrance. I don’t have 24 in channels. Just inline and 2×2. That’s why I was thinking of trying the guides.>>
Ah! You can put the open 2xs2s at the end of the straight set 🙂 And if they are not nailed down, you can remove the 2nd set of 6 and do a straight set of 6 then open 2x2s to get the exit better. And I always found that placing the reinforcement so the dog would exit looking away from me was a huge help to get them to stay in the poles. Yes, guides would work too, but she’d have to be taught what they are so it might be easier to use something she already knows.
>>Seemed like forever. But, it probably wasn’t.>>
Try counting in your head as you are waiting, a slow count 🙂 It is just a measure of latency so we can see the baseline. Many of the top dogs in agility take a solid 4 or 5 seconds to line up (feels like decades LOL!) but that is fine and they run brilliantly.
Tracy
Hi!
>>But this reminds me of my question, often times when I get Reacher out into the field and take the leash off he immediately takes off and tries to “do things” without me! I love his enthusiasm and don’t want to discourage him, but it doesn’t seem like this is a good idea and certainly will be detrimental at a trial. I’m going to teach a set up routine and that should help with this, but in the meantime is there anything I should be doing to prevent him from just running around the second the leash comes off to run around wings, jumps or or take the tunnel? Or is it just a fun release?>>
Good question! I agree that is it a fun release and we want him to enjoy the enthusiasm! But ideally, we don’t want him running courses as soon as the leash comes off LOL!! So in order to maintain the enthusiasm because we don’t want to tell him he is wrong to do it, two ideas:
– clear the area of anything else other than what you are working on. That means moving wings away, turning down the tunnel entries so they face the ground and he can’t get in, and blocking off contacts.
– before the leash comes off, engage him with the cookies or toys. Then drop the leash while you keep engaging him…. Then take the leash off and keep engaging him (this will only take about 10 seconds total, probably) That way he won’t zip off to play with the equipment, but also he won’t want to leave you because you are so fun!The lead out session went well! The stays are looking really good, nice job building in a reinforcement after he had the one stay oopsie.
On the first rep, he had a miss but I think he just needed to be lined up straighter and closer to the jump like you did on rep 2. Good job throwing the reward in that general direction anyway! As the session went along, he was moving directly to the jump more and more and looking at you less and less – yay! And his turn over the jump looked terrific.
As the distance gets bigger, you can toss the toy to his landing line (between the landing spot and you) to help keep the value out on the line. And he looks definitely ready for you to try it on the other side! When you switch sides, start him nice and close to the jump so he has an easy time.
Great job here!!
Tracy
