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Hi!
The dinosaur mask is utter perfection and the transition out of the tugging using the treat was GREAT! So much easier!
For the shaping – the value building is coming along really well! For the next session, you can do it standing and then rather than feed her from your hand after a click, you can begin by dropping it on the mask. Then go to tossing it away after the click, so she come back and hits the mask again.
>>She’s on a leash in some of these videos the which is getting in the way – I need to set up some barriers as it’s a larger basement area.>>
If she is on a leash to prevent her from leaving the session, take it as a challenge to keep her engaged with a high rate of success and tugging… so she doesn’t want to leave! The leash was getting in the way so it would be fun to try it without the leash 🙂
On the 2nd video – yes, trading for the cookie is working sooooo much better. I think the cheese was a little too high in value but she was very good about letting go of the toy without pummeling you! So try it with the lowest value reward she will trade for (kibble?) and that might be the perfect balance.
Switching toys went really well too! You can exaggerate the emphasis on the new toy by looking at it first, really admiring it and talking about it… then letting it come alive 🙂 The pups respond really well to us looking at things! And he did well giving the toy back and eating the cheese at the end!
The wrap foundation went well too! I think the leash clanging on the bowl was a little distracting for her, so this is a good one to get the leash off too 🙂 Nice job getting her to go back and forth! For the next lesion, you can start to sit on a couch, and then work your way to standing!
Great job on these :) Tracy
Hi!
Wow, congrats on her scent accomplishments! She is a really talented pup!!!
>>I know the next videos are also short, I did it before, I got your feedback about time….>>
I forgot to mention that if you have a few videos to post of different games, you can post them all at the same time 🙂 No need to wait to post anything 🙂
The blind cross video looked fabulous – her response to your blind cross was snappy! And your connection was very clear, which is the key! You can add distance by throwing the cookie further away… which will get you both running more 🙂
If I am remembering correctly, she has lovely toy play too – so you can incorporate the toy play into this game: toss the cookie to get ahead of her, then reward with the tug toy after the blind. It is a great way to build up using food & toys in the same session, and she seems ready for it.
Great job here!
TracyHi!
Ah yes! I do remember Morgan!!
>>She was my first dog that I tried to tug with and I ended up with a dog that will not bring her tug back to me. It’s super hard now to use tugging properly as reinforcement.>>
That is good to know, and also no worries – we always learn and improve and I am sure Gemma will be a totally different adventure!
She was a very good girl outside with the game!!! Her drive ahead looked great! She didn’t grab onto the toy quite as well to play tugging yet, but part of that was being outdoors, and part of that was the toy was small – so it was relatively stationary when you were tugging.
For outdoors, bring a big long toy o you can swing it around nice and low for her to chase for tugging – that will really help! I thought your session was a good length and she was not that distracted, considering she is so young. A big long wild toy will make a difference (I have a couple of toys that are for outdoor-use only, because they are really high value and really long.
>>Probably the Most important skill I want to perfect during this class is having her want to bring the toy back to me to tug and not run off and play with it by herself.>>
You already had step 1 happening here: don’t run away 🙂 She didn’t quite bring it back but she also didn’t run away, so I score it a big win! And you were very relaxed about it all (maybe you were faking it, but you looked nice and relaxed) which takes the pressure off the retrieve – too much pressure will ruin retrieves.
You can encourage her to bring it back a few ways: as soon as she has the toy, you can run the other way, happily calling her, and whip out another toy for her to trade for. Note – she does not have to bring the original toy back to you yet, she just has to come towards you and engage. That is a great next step and then we gently add in bringing the original toy back. There is no rush on that, it takes a while to get a great retrieve and I promise we will focus on it 🙂
>>We did another session (not videoed) this morning and it was the same. I think we need more practice inside and in different places inside before taking it outside. >>
You can do short little sessions like this in a variety of different locations for sure, indoor and outdoor. There might be a difference in her responses between the comfy places and the more distracting places, but that is normal and also it is fine 🙂 Keep it short and fun and happy like you had it here, and she will do great!
Nice work :)
TracyGood morning! Thanks for the update about Winn, I am glad she is responding well!!!
The rocking horse video is going well – the regular front crosses are perfect. Your position on the lap turns was too much in the center of the two wings, so he was not entirely sure of what you wanted. God job rewarding him even if it was not a perfect response, because he was trying his best to figure it out.
Positionally, the lap turn would have your hip next to the wing, with you facing him and the other wing. And then while you remain facing him, the hand/leg next to the wing are what draw him into the lap turn.
The Go video and the wrap/decel video both looked great! You can throw the reward sooner on the Go (as soon as he looks ahead to the jump after finishing the wing wrap) to get him really driving ahead. And on the wrap, have him drive out of it for a reward by chasing you (rather than stopping and dropping a treat).
Speaking of treat dropping – try to do that a lot less treat dropping and try to add more play in the reinforcement. It can be toy play if he will play with toys, or you can get a lotus ball or treat hugger and tie it to a line ,so he chases the foodie toys like tug toys 🙂 That will get even more speed and engagement!
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyUgh YouTube is being naughty!!!!!! Let me know when the videos are back up, I am looking forward to seeing them!
Tracy
Hi!
Day jobs get in the way of all the fun!!! But glad you got some training in 🙂
The turn aways are looking good! He is reading the lap turn and the tandem turn really well, basically changing his line at the first moment of the cue, both with food and with the toy. He is definitely faster with the toy… which means you don’t have time to switch it from hand to hand 🙂 That was making you one moment late on each of those. So either leave the toy in one hand the whole time, or stick it in your pocket. Moving it from hand to hand delays your cues (you probably don’t even realize you are doing it LOL!) and it draws his focus away from the cues too. I think the toy is the better reward, as long as it is not moving around 🙂
>>We ended up discussing the verbals a bit for this one and I ended up confusing myself. Is it best to keep using his name for both of these moves until we add jumps?>>
Yes – the verbals will be threadle verbals and those involve the visual of the bar, so his name is good for now.
>>If you wrap a jump (front side) with dog on right. You both face the jump’s front side. Dog jumps the front side first and wraps away from you. You turn 180 and head back with the dog towards the direction you originally came from. Is that still a wrap verbal or do you use a turn-away verbal? Thanks in advance as we talked ourselves in circles a bit.>>
That is handler choice – some people use a turn away verbal. Some people use a wrap verbal. I use a wrap verbal if the dog is only wrapping, then back into normal handling. I use my turn away verbal if the sequence then has a big layering moment, to indicate that the dog should move to line focus and that I will be layering.
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
He did well with the set point here! I think the toy was good, you just needed a slightly longer lead out so he can land and power out to it (he was a little ass-over-teakettle over jump 2 because the toy was a little close, mainly because you were trying to set up success on the stay). He will have more room to get his hind end powerfully under him if the toy is 12-15 feet past jump 2 as he is approaching jump 2.
I think part of the stay question was the environment especially at the beginning – some frantic barking in the background made it harder! We humans don’t really hear that but puppies sure do, and their brains have to process both the barking and the stay behavior – not easy for baby dogs. I am not sure there is a way to stop the barking, so you can start the session with short stays and TONS of reinforcement so he learns to ignore the barking, then you can build up to the longer lead outs. Also, I think he is releasing on the connection when you turn your head to look at him, so try to un-pair that with continued thrown reinforcement back to him when you look back at him. Yo were doing a lot of that and it really helped!
He did well with the proofing! He was definitely all about the wraps LOL! Nice job letting him hear the verbals before you let go of him – he might need to see you step or turn towards the tunnel, that was harder for him in this session. I think also the tunnel entry was not all that visible to him here, so be sure to curve the tunnel a little so he can see it squarely in front of him – both to make finding the tunnel easier and to make the wrap harder, since he is all about the wrapping now : )
When there is an error, reset with an immediate cookie so you don’t get the frustration behavior of jumping up (3:10, 4:24) or avoiding the collar grab (4:15). And when he does get the hard thing right, use big fast exciting reinforcement – he got the tunnel right at 4:30 and you had one delayed cookie while he was sitting LOL! That rep was worth a toy throw 🙂 And to balance the value and keep the tunnel value high, you can toss a reward to the end of it so that he looks at you less on the tunnel cue.The proofing games are hard, and the pups tend to swing back and forth between values for a bit like he is doing – then it all evens out nicely 🙂
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning! Hooray for good weather!!!
NICE transitions into decel!! She was able to commit in collection while driving ahead of you – perfect! One oopsie but that is on the side that seems to be less comfy for you (dog on left) but you worked it out and your last rep was perfection. SUPER!!!!!
Next step when you train this skill – raise the bar to the next height (2 inches higher).
Yes, set aside the Mission Transition for now. You can do the other games for sure, and you can use this simple wing-to-jump setup to try to show her all 4 of the cues we have worked on it: GO (that is easy :)), the decel/wraps, the rear crosses, the backside circle wraps. That is easy for the dogs… very very hard for us humans because we have to be spot on 🙂 It is a fun challenge!
>>I wanted to ask you about “This game can go into the general rotation” (zig zag comment). I don’t have a general rotation, can you give me some examples of what we should be doing for a general rotation?
By general rotation, I mean choosing games to play when I have training time during the week. If I get 3 days with some time to train agility with the pups, I might do one handling game on each of the days, and maybe one jumping game on one day, and maybe play with weaves or contacts body awareness on the other day (depending on how old the pup is). Being able to train 3 times a week ben for 5 minutes would be GREAT! Sometimes I can get twice a week in… sometimes once a week. Sometimes zero times LOL!!! It is all good – so when carving out some time to train, I will ask myself what I haven’t done recently and what needs to be worked on and what sounds like fun – sometimes I will pull out a jump grid because it needs work and is fun 🙂
>>t’s almost all I can do to get through each week’s games and haven’t been working past games in.
Because of how the games are structured, you don’t need to go back to past games that you have done – they are generally built into the new games each week. There is no need to work any game or handling skill to perfection – just get it roughly right and move on to the next week. That should make it easier to keep up and also keep things spicy so it doesn’t feel like drilling. For example – you don’t need to revisit the Diamond or Smiley Face, because the Starfish (added today) includes those skills.
>>I haven’t been training agility every day; there’s usually at least 1 day in between, often more.
That is perfect – I do NOT recommend training agility every day. Every other day or every couple of days is great.
>>I know we need to work on rear crosses, serps, left/right, Go! etc. (basically everything, I guess!) >>
Yes, all young dogs need to work those skills 🙂 But that doesn’t mean you need to back track – you can keep moving forward because the skills move forward with the games as well, so you can practice them in different contexts. And in agility, they constantly appear in different contexts so it is good to approach them that way.

>>I want to be careful not to overwork Hola or dampen her enthusiasm. We can only do so several short sessions in a day with this heat. >>Yes – the heat makes things really hard but also it helps limit the amount of training!
>>Should we be doing maybe ONE past exercise on our off days so we’re doing something every day??
Nope! Don’t add anything to a day that is a rest day. And on training days, pick something you haven’t worked on yet.
>>What about things like the Zig Zag, Ladder and Minny Pinny, which are jumping skill exercises? How often should we be doing each of these?
Jumping games can be done once per week, and you get a new jumping game being posted today – so you can leave the zig zags and move to the new one (posted in a couple of hours).
>>Will we be raising the ladder drill jump heights in Session 3 and adding in more jumping skills?>>
Yes – bars will slowly start to come up, you will see that start to get added in during the games and also on specific skills for the pups who are old enough (Hola is old enough). You’ll find that the jumping skills are pretty easy because we’ve waiting til she is matured and also done the foundation!
Nice job on the video here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
>>I was judging scent work at a 4 day cluster this past weekend so no free time for puppy agility. >>
FUN!!! I hope JJ will be learning scent work as well; it is such a great sport and so terrific for puppies! And it is just fascinating to watch the dogs work.
>>I am not sure exactly how the posting should work. Do we have a maximum number of times to post in a week or day? >>
No maximum times to post in a week or day, just some general guidelines:
Short sessions are best, no need to edit videos, and generally a 2 minute total length to the video is great. You can post several games per day, or a new game each day – whatever you end up doing is fine 🙂 And, before trying the game again, it is best to wait for feedback in case there is anything we can change or add. But you can post other games in the meantime!
More on the posting guidelines are here:
>>I was so excited to get the working live spot. We got tomes adjusted so that I could sign up right when the class opened even though I was in Australia at that time. >>
I am so glad you are in a live spot too! You and JJ were fabulous and it is going to be so fun watching you two work live. I am very impressed that you figured out the time to register from Australia! WOW!!!
>>My friend and dog’s massage therapist Kirstie Dean highly recommended your class. That all being said, We are trying to get back on track with things with JJ>>
Kirstie is wonderful! I’ll be sure to send her a big thanks 🙂
On the videos – these are both perfect examples of adding video! They can be longer if you want, and can show any toy play before and after as well.
On the first video:
I love how JJ changed her striding to arrive at your side in collection on the first rep. It was not as obvious on the other reps because she was chewing and trotting LOL! Great job feeding nice and low (at your knee) so she was able to get nice and tight to you.She also did a great job with the distractions in the environment. Only one loud sound caught her attention, but then she returned to full focus. Super!
Looking at the 2nd video:
Actually, I was wrong about her chewing being the reason things were not as obvious in the decel – it is more about which side of you she is on! When she is on your right side, she runs to you then decelerates. When she is on your left side, she trots to you and decelerates (which is why it is not as obvious as when she runs). Aha! We have discovered her side preference! Cool! This means that either she is more comfy working on your right or she is a lefty, or both 🙂This is good to know, because you can begin each new skill with her on your right, where she is more comfortable. That will speed learning because she won’t have to think about her coordination as much as she would have to on the other side. When she gets the hang of a skill on your right/turning left, then you can start it on the other side. And the other side might progress at a slightly different rate, but this is normal and fine 🙂
So looking at this 2nd video – she did really well here too! And because you were moving more, she was moving faster – which means you can show your deceleration sooner. When she is no more than halfway to you, start the deceleration. She looks to be a pretty powerful pup already, so the earlier decel timing will give her more time to shift into collection.
Great job on these!!! Let me know what you think ad how the other games are going 🙂
Tracy
Good morning!
She totally had the rhythm with the bowls, so adding the upright was no problem. You are correct – adding it then moving it out did not faze her one bit, she stuck to her back and forth rhythm and get wrapping the upright Yay! Lovely session.
Two things to add to this level:
– using the food, you an slide the 2 bowls back so they are closer to your heels than your toes, so she travels more distance around the upright and so she sees the bowls less.– you can try this sitting on the floor with 2 toys!
The next level of this age gets added today (published at about 9am Eastern) so stay tuned for the next steps. She is ready!
Great job :) Tracy
I totally have a side preference too 🙂 I always knew dogs had side preferences, but watching zillions of videos during covid times really rammed the point home for me – these pups can be great turning one direction, but completely out of sorts going. the other direction. No worries, we can work the training so the skills are learned in the new direction first then transferred to the harder direction.
Tracy
Good morning! This session went really well! There is some real power happening and her head position is great! She had no trouble at all with the increased angles. Super!
One small detail: remember to have the toy in your dog-side arm as you drag it, not across your body (we don’t want a lot of upper body rotation on this one).
The further you lead out, the more power she is able to produce, so lead out at least 10 feet past jump 3 before you release her (her stay looks great, which is why we can add a longer lead out :))Brad asked about marker words: yes, you can use a bite verbal but also it is fine if you let the context speak for itself:
The marker to get the toy is implied in the setup of the session: you would never otherwise drag a toy in this context without wanting her to get it 🙂
>>I still have the bars at 6 inches and don’t know if I should be raising them at all.
The bars on this type of grid never really go up. Maybe 8 inches at the highest, at this distance. We will start introducing height later on, stay tuned for what is coming tomorrow!! I personally delay heights going up until the dogs are older adolescents and also when I have clearance from y sports vet – the goal is to get to full height somewhere between 18 months and 2 years old. The results of waiting have been amazing because the dogs practice great mechanics. Do your best to ignore all the people who raise the bars on baby dogs, that will create issues!
>>Is the goal to continue to get the grid straighter so the jumps are more slice?
Eventually, very eventually, it turns into a wicked hard grid where the jumps are completely “flat” but that is much further down the road and they have to be adults to do that.
>> Should I be doing any of the grids that are straight on?
We add another straight grid tomorrow 🙂
>>Mostly this past week I have just been working on her ability to station while I do things with the other dogs and for her to be able to do some little things while they station. We try to make it lots of fun, and the activities I do with the boys while she stations are very low energy at this point ex. calling to hand touches or perch work. I think it is helping her overall ability to deal with the stimulation of other things going on around her but we have to do baby steps for sure.>>
This is good, but keep it very very easy/successful/baby steps because it can be a big brain drain for an adolescent dog and also can be very frustrating. So do it a tiny tiny bit but there is no need for it to be a lifestyle 🙂 Again, that is where I differ from a lot of other people – but we know a whole lot more about the neurobiology of what is happening during stationing, and too much emphasis on it during adolescence can do more harm than good. Teenage brains can’t handle a whole lot of that challenge 🙂
Great job here!
TracyHi!
Yes, the cooler temps helped and he had some time to think about driving to the tunnel during the training break 🙂 He was able to put together wing-to-tunnel REALLY nicely!!
When you switched sides, I think he needed the tunnel warm up that you gave him on the first side. Also, he might have been a little mentally tired because he had a moment at 1:02 where he took off for a bit. You got him back, but he struggled to find the tunnel so it is possible his brain was done for the day 🙂 I can totally relate! So on the next session, start with the tunnel on that side to do a few reps, then try wing to tunnel, then be done (don’t do the other side in the same session). As he gets used to the heat and working outside, you will see his physical and mental stamina increase.
Great job here!!
Tracy
