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Good morning!
I agree – this flew by!!!! And these pups are growing up! I am glad to har that Vibe is doing amazing and that your bond & teamwork are really coming together :). That is the most important part!!! Thank you for sharing her adventures 🙂
Tracy
Good morning!
>>Previously we taught a similar game, using “tunnel”, for direct approach, and “through!”, for entering from the opposite end. Could “through!”, be used as a verbal here? Instead of adding another verbal, which I might forget?>>
Absolutely! This is the “through” game, just expanded to add more speed and handler motion. So “tunnel: is for the direct approach and “through” is for the other side (nearer to you). No need to add another verbal at all 🙂
Tracy
Good morning!
>>This was from yesterday over lunch. (I think – can’t rember back that far.)>>
That is highly relatable LOL
Zig zags: Her set up right next to the wing looked great! She did leave the sit a few times if you walked away talking and without connection, she might think that indicate she was done? But when you were connected and quieter, she held the stay beautifully.
Being on the opposite side totally helped her at the beginning, and then she remembered the skill. So you can try to be on the opposite side for the first rep of a new session to help refresh it then add in being wherever you want on there line.Since she did so well, this game can go into the rotation of once or twice a week, but a little more challenging each time. The next step would be to have the middle wing touching the first bump, so the distances are shorter (theoretically she would need to move more quickly). You can do a rep or two starting where you left off here as a refresher, then you can move the wing to the bump so there are no gaps between the wings and bumps.
Layering also went well – it was good to reward her for staying on her parallel line even though she went past the jump on the first full rep. That parallel line concept is the key to layering, and finding the jump gets easier and easier as the parallel line concept gets solid. By rewarding the parallel line, she was great with the skill on the rest of the session including with the tunnel on the other side AND the entries being available! SUPER!!! You can add in the FC after the jump to get her into the tunnel, she seems ready for that 🙂
Nice job rewarding the wing – you can also reward after the initial sending away by tossing cheese to the opposite side of it. Mix it up and keep it surprising because the nerdy science stuff says the surprise the key to the best learning.
Looking at the tunnel threadle video:
Running past the tunnel is something that happens at this stage: they are going FAST! They are EXCITED!!! And that makes it harder to organize to get into the tunnel and it is also possible her brain was telling her she did the tunnel and nailed it LOL! Teenage brains…. LOL!! And it could also be a slight bleed over from the layering work which was ‘go past the tunnel’. So stretching out the tunnel even more will help her see it more easily and you can do a warm up of just the tunnel. We will balance in the tunnel cues in the layering game too 🙂
I think the tunnel threadles went better when you started from the rocking horse so you could show the turn on the wing more easily. I know the game was supposed to start broken down to just one wing but she showed us at 1:17 that the rocking horse approach was better. Thanks, Lift! That rep looked really good! You were able to show the decel and shoulder turn on the wing before the tunnel threadle and she nailed it.
As you do the tunnel threadles, you can move more directly to the tunnel entry you want rather that pull away from it then draw her back to it – the couple of steps of pulling away got her looking at you more than we want and I think she will be fine to let you move directly to the entry. Your motion was spot on for now: not too fast, not too slow 🙂 It will be easier to add running soon 🙂>>She also threw in her own rocking horse moment in the middle so I went with it. (apparently rewarding a few wing wraps here and there has made her re-think the value of the wing…of course there was no jump in play here.>>
It was great! It made sense to her, you might have moved an eye lash in that direction, and she was happy to do it. And the tunnel was in play, so it was not just isolated wing wraps. Love it!
Great job here!
Tracy
Hi again! These skills are going really well and you can add in the Mission:Transition game to get the FC wraps.
Looking at video 1:
Since we are thinking about markers, a couple more thoughts:
“GO” is of course a verbal directional but it can also be predictive of reward placement (like a marker would be) so throwing it long (like you did at :17 and :21 and 1:02 and 1:13) was great. He did not look back at you on this first video or any of the other go reps on any of the videos, Yay!!!The “Payday” marker indicated reward was from your hand with toy on these reps. See more on that below. You used different markers for cookies from your hand, so try to be super consistent with a word for that too.
Rear crosses looked great here!!!
Backside wrap looked lovely – be sure to let him see the full wing as you move to where the wing and bar meet (harder to see when he was no your right heading to the backside) – he really understood the countermotion as you moved past. Well done!
The backside reps at :36 and 1:17 were really good – you didn’t block the wing and you moved forward directly but you maintained connection behind you to the landing spot to support commitment.
Video 2: This video looks virtually identical to the home video, in terms of how well he was responding to the cues. That is HUGELY good, because it means he was not struggling to process the info in the new/different environment. SUPER! And your cues were clear!
Note how he looks at you when you said “payday” at :03 – I think you were trying to reward ahead but you said “payday” so he stopped driving forward and looked back to you. This is good to know: turns out that “payday” is probably your toy-in-hand marker 🙂 So you can keep it that way and you can add a different marker for a reward out ahead.
This video gives us good angles on seeing the line of motion on the backside cues: you were straight on the line to where the wing and bar meet at :27 and the line was really clear to him. At :32 heading towards the camera, you blocked the line a little then pulled off it, which creates a bit if a banana-shaped line for him 🙂 and could potentially pull him off the backside of the jump.
Video 3, adding the tunnel: Lovely connection from you on these!!!!! He did really well. Small details to consider:
Give him a tunnel exit cue before he goes into the tunnel (a single GO cue is useful and can be timed to be delivered when he is about 5 feet away before entering the tunnel) so he exits looking forward.
For the rear crosses:
:06 and :15 were RCs on the flat (also on the reps on the other side) – he did find the RCs but looked at you before making the turn. He did figure it out when you had more convergence at the end, but he had a big question early on. The more ideal position for a RC there would be on the line between the tunnel and the jump so he can turn before takeoff. That would also put you more ahead of him than a RC on the flat will. For the RCs on the flat, you can use tandem turn cues after the tunnel so he doesn’t look at you as much.For turning to the jump towards you, you can turn your shoulders a little sooner so he takes off for the jump after the tunnel facing the new line. The timing will likely be after you see him exit the tunnel and look at the next jump (things happen fast with hm :))
This last video had the RC between the tunnel and the jump and he was great! Really nice connection and RC line from you. He looked at you a little when he exited the tunnel, and there is where a tunnel exit cue will help – before he enters the tunnel, you can tell him to “go” so he knows to look straight and not at you 🙂 And it looks like the turn towards you was very clear for him too – great job with your directionals on the jump here too!
When you add the backside wraps to this setup, ramping up your connection to his eyes as you drive the line will help get him to the backside. The ‘normal’ connection here worked great to get the RC on the front side. When you are not that far ahead of him, adding extra big connection to his eyes can really help support the cues.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Good morning!
>>Payday is my go to word when I don’t have a clicker.>>
Great! Now that there is more sequencing and handling happening, it will probably be easier to use the payday marker than a clicker.
>> I’ve tried adding the reward placement markers–that’s a slower process for me though I do see value in it (earlier you thought I could get by with fewer of those and I am currently rethinking my list–I agree that a simpler list is more in keeping with my ability to keep all the verbals straight. You might hear me couple payday with “bonus” when I want to continue paying for a particularly good rep.>>
Yes, all you need are an important couple 🙂 Others can be added later, but I think a “get it” for reward thrown ahead and a marker for the reward in your hand will be very helpful! You probably don’t need a different marker for toys versus food on the get it but if you train with both food and toys on your hands a lot, then you should consider different markers for the toy in your hand versus the food in your hand, so he knows how hard to grab the thing from you hand.
>>When we first started with reward markers and a different (less punitive in my mind) method of IYC, he was getting very good at only taking rewards when offered.>>
Those are a great way to start, and very ‘clean’ set ups where the reinforcement strategy is super clear. It gets harder when we put all the other pieces in LOL! I can totally relate!
>>Adolescence, my inconsistencies, impatience when I’m slow to get started, higher arousal with more movement, frustration on his part if something seems too hard, etc. can all cause the toy grabs. >>
For the adolescence/inconsistency/frustration: use a LOT of reset reinforcement and also reinforce if the handling goes wrong because it is 99.99% likely that it is human error and he is correct 🙂
For the higher arousal with more movement: often that makes the connection harder to see and the cues harder to process, so you can take a two-pronged approach now that we are adding more movement:
– when you are going really fast, use food reinforcement. That will balance the higher arousal from the motion with the lower arousal of the food and if a good way to bridge the game into higher arousal.
– when using a toy, don’t move as fast and make HUGE connection 🙂 That will also be a good balance of the higher arousal from the toy, with a slightly lower arousal approach to the game.For the slow getting started: Yes, young dogs think we humans are just SLOW hahahaha So rather than having him milling about and not knowing what to do with himself, you can either have him waiting on a platform or in his crate while you get yourself ready then call him into the game, or get everything ready using food and switch to the toy as you begin the game. He will be happy to wait on a platform, I think, because he really likes having a job to do or game to play 🙂
>>I’m going to start logging when it happens in each session so that I become better aware.>>
Perfect!!!! A pattern will reveal itself!
Keep me posted!
Tracy
Thanks for checking because sometimes things don’t load properly. Yes, only one game this week as a bit of a catch up week 🙂 Have fun!!! And we have extra weeks at the end, so there is no pressure to get it all done every week.
Tracy
Good morning!
>> I opted for some pieces of cooked chicken. Messy in one’s pocket however. I find the lotus ball is a bit clumsy on reward, and sometimes too exciting being more a toy than treat. I need to use treats right now to have less, “yeehaw!” >>
Yes, good point about the lotus ball potentially being too exciting. She definitely seemed to like the cooked chicken!!!!
This session went really well. She was able to find the ‘out’ jump and also go straight when you did not want the out jump. Super!!!
You can start to add more distance, so the start wing is a little further away (laterally) so she has to move another stride or two away to find the jump. The outside arm worked really well here! So as you add the distance, add a little more eye contact (say the verbal directly to her cute face :)) as you do the handling. That will really support the line! Looking at her instead of where you throw the reward might lead to less accurate reward throwing, but that is fine: connection is more important and as long as the reward throw is generally towards the jump, she will get the idea 🙂
Great job!
TracyGood morning!
She did great on the low DW! Excellent balance when she turned around, and some jumping off later in the video too. Learning to jump off is so important so she knows that if she loses her balance, she can safely leap off and not have a bad spill. This is something to re-visit every now and then, to maintain the acrobatic skills 🙂And since tunnels under the dog walk are such a hot course design element lately, I might revise this game to add teaching the dog to hop off while avoiding a tunnel. Stay tuned!
Great job 🙂
Tracy
Hi!
>>Thanks so much for the advice about starting FEO. I’m going to hold off on FEO and just let her do the tunnels fun run.>>
Perfect! She is very young, there is no rush! She is talented so we can take our time transitioning into the ring.
>>THIS ^^ This right here is why I need to cool my jets and take MaxPup4!!
Ha! It is fun and very very systematic but also individualized.
>>Also what you said about Seminars and classes allowing me to use food made so much sense! A much easier transition for her!>>Yes, it will feel like trials but you can still have cookies!
>> Can I do the 2×2 track with 3 sets of 2x2s and a set of 6 weave poles?
Yes – most of the learning in the 2×2 track is done on 6 poles (3 bases)
>>Is it best to do both tracks? Maybe I can see if I can borrow a set of channels for a few months?>>I think it is best to do both, at least for part of it. The channels are fantastic for getting the dogs understanding a lot about independence and all 12 poles. The 2x2s are great for breaking things down. And at some point, the dogs tell us which they prefer! And then you can do the rest of it using the method they prefer. It is pretty cool!
>>One last thing I just wanted to let you know that the image examples that show the filled-out field guides are not loading on the intro pages.>>Darned technology! I will take a look and see what is going on with that.
Looking at the video:
The forced front crosses looked great! Try to slowly put your hand into position before the release, so she doesn’t think hand movement is the release.
She also did well with the throwback! She looked surprised at :23 and :38 when you did it but her turns were appropriately tighter! Yay!For the balance where you are cuing the front side of the jump, you can have her on your right like you did at :10 and :30, and then have her serp to her right rather than do a FC on the landing. Or you can have her on your left and super over the bar to her left.
Great job here!!
Tracy
Hi!
>>She was much more of a velcro dog and did really tight wraps on her own, but was not near as fast as
Only your 2nd agility dog? You are doing AMAZINGLY with her!!!! JJ is fast and getting faster every day… which certainly makes it harder to get tight turns! But the timing will lock in and it will get a lot easier 🙂
>>I did make the working area larger for the whole set of sequences this day because like you had said it was pretty tight. The jumps actually ended up being about 21 feet apart on the dogs running line. I had had them at about 18.
It might be that she takes a tighter line than the average dog’s line? The 21 foot distance here did look better! I measure it as 21 feet or more center-to-center on the bar, so it gives the dogs a more accurate distance when they run on tight lines.
>>JJ needs constant reminders about her start line. She is very enthusiastic about her sequence time. LoL.
Oh yes, she is definitely excited to play! I love it! She does better when you give her one more stay verbal as you re-connect and get into position. When you don’t, you are accidentally pairing the release with the arm and re-connection, so she was releasing on the re-connection. Reminding her to stay while your arm moves and while you look at her will keep the errors to a minimum.
The sequences went really well!!!
Video 1:
These went super nicely! You can trust the FC at :06 and don’t help her land or come around the wing. As soon as she lifts off, start heading for the next line. If she back-jumps, we can fix that through training.
You might not need the spin at :32 – you can probably send and leave, and still get a great turn. If you do the spin, start the decel and FC when she lands from 1 so the spin is in progress before takeoff, and so the BC is done before she exits the wing wrap of 2.Stay more connected to her on the last line – when you look forward, she looks at you (like at :38).
Video 2:
The forced FC to the RC on the tunnel looked great on all 3 reps here. Great line up position! And excellent timing on the forced FC. This is where she was wanting to release on the re-connection as you got into position, so a little stay reminder is fine here.Video 3
>>it was really hard for me to get her to the back side of the jump just before the tunnel,>>She read the opening line nicely! Connection will be the key to getting the backside. At :10 when you indicated the backside, you looked forward and pointed forward… which from her perspective is exactly the movement of a blind cross. So she changed sides, good girl! She did save it and find the backside, double good girl! But you can smooth out that line by keeping your dog-side arm back like a serp, and making huge eye contact as she lands – then maintain that eye contact until she heads to the backside.
This video was posted twice, so I think one is missing?
Video 4: she is doing really well here too, so we can work out the mechanics of the various exits of jump 2. You can throw her back to 2 without turning your feet, which makes the running line easier for you. Your feet remain rotated and upper body (arm, shoulders, connection) sends her back to the landing spot of 2.
At :47, you can pick her up on your left side so you don’t need to RC the next jump (although she did just fine with that :))Video 5: The 2nd rep here had the best moment of throw-back on 2 – you didn’t really rotate your feet and she read it really well! You used your upper body to send her behind you and pick her up with your left, so the turn was tight and you were ahead on the next line. The first rep had a little too much rotation but the 2nd rep was lovely!
Great job here!!!!
Tracy
Hi!
>>The get out one, was meant to be more of a proofing game.
Yes, it is about showing the dog the difference between staying on the line and moving away to a jump when cued. You were teaching her the move away part, and that is great! Adding in the stay on your line part will be easy 🙂
Tracy
Hi! Lots of good work here, she is picking all this up beautifully!
The physical cues on the rocking horse game are looking good and your connection is really strong! Try to reward after every 2 or 3 wings or 4 wings, mixing it up to create a variable reward schedule (which makes the behavior really strong)
Also, try to add different verbals 🙂 Everything here was go go go so I will bug you to add your wrap verbals 🙂
Looking at the get out game:
>>The get out, we finally got after many tries, mostly failed by two things, me stepping it, though trying to go straight.>>
The bar might have helped bit also for the get out, you might find it easier to use your outside arm to cue the behavior. The dog-side arm doesn’t provide the shoulder rotation as easily (or as quickly as whippets need to see it 🙂 ) So as you are saying your ‘out’ verbal, you can use your right arm in this case to point to the jump (and your eyes on her as you say the verbal). That can turn your shoulders very clearly – on the 2nd video, you can see she was going straight with the left arm up and then turned away as soon as your right arm came up. Yes, you were throwing the treat 🙂 but the arm motion got the behavior before the treat was visible.
>>And my cookie throwing wasn’t working. She was just missing. >>
Cookie throwing in grass is hard! You can use a lotus ball or treat hugger – both of those carry the cookie and are easily seen by the pups, so you can throw it like a toy but it lands like a treat and she can grab the treat out of it 🙂 A kong stuffed with a tiny bit of cream cheese can work perfectly for this too.
The zig zags are going well! On this setup, you can add another bar in the gap between the 2 jumps (you can rotate the wing of jump 1 so the jump cups are facing the other way, and the bar basically hangs off of all 3 wings). That way she really has to zig and zag back and forth and it will be easier for her to see the bars. I think you can lead out more (as far as possible) so you can be showing the cues from ahead and not needing to run as fast 🙂 She seems to have a lovely line up and stay, so you can totally use that to your advantage.
The decel on the transition game went well!!! She had a nice turn on both reps! You can mix in lots of true “go” reps so she accelerates past you more, which will make the decel even easier. You can exit the wraps with a front cross: after you decelerate, you will turn towards her and pick her on on your other side. You did a spin (FC to a BC) on. The first rep and a blind cross on the 2nd rep – those work but they are harder than the FC 🙂
On this game too, try not to cue the wraps with a ‘go’ verbal. Add in your wrap verbal as you are slowing down, so the wrap verbal gets attached to this and we can save the go go go for the straight lines.
Great job here!!
Tracy
Good morning!
The race tracks looked great here, no problem at all – you can send her away more to the wing before the lap turn, so you don’t have to run backwards more than one step. The lap turns looked great!
For the tandems – the single wing tandems looked good!! When you added more speed with a wing wrap before the tandem – the upper body and verbals need to override the motion which is hard with small dogs. If you were not clear enough with the hands not visible or not enough verbal info, she stayed on her line to the other side of the wing like at :47. But when you were clearer and used verbals like at :53 and :57, she got it really well. Yay! So definitely use a verbal (you used her name at :53 and here here at :57, so you can use her name to get her attention then the threadle wrap verbal). And also make your hands really visible – I recommend using both of them nice and low, and shaking them really helped make them visible.
Great job here!
Tracy
Hi!
Super windy!! But the session went well!!! Pre-breakfast training is good to add into the rotation (especially for simpler behaviors or behaviors with a lot of movement) because the physiology of working for food when you are hungry is an excellent little pressure to add in! The more I learn about dopamine neurobiology, the more we see that little pressures like that are the best preparations for the neurobiology of being in the ring. But with a puppy, you might not want to do anything new or too challenging pre-breakfast, because it could all go sideways very quickly 🙂She needed a little bit of motion to the jump to ‘put it in play’ because of the increased distance at first – good job helping her out! And you were gradually able to help less and less. Then she was able to find it more independently on the last rep, which made. The FC after it much easier 🙂 Super! You can also have the wings in a little closer so the jump is visible sooner before she gets locked onto your motion.
Also on that last couple of reps, you can see the value of the start wing beginning to wane (she was not moving to the wing as smoothly and seemed to be anticipating the direction change to the jump), so you can randomly throw in surprise rewards for the start wing. That way the value stays high and she is less likely to have BIG MADZ about going to it when the high value jump is behind her 🙂 A BIG surprise would be the rest of her full breakfast for just wrapping the wing – the best kind of pop rocks moment!!!
Great job here!!
Tracy
Good morning!
>>Yes, he did have a BIG MAD!>>
Generally when they leap up for the toy or at us, it is a BIG MAD (frustration) and not a toy impulse control issue.
>>Yes, I often wake up having worked out some thing i must have been processing in my sleep.>>There is a lot of science on this, both latent learning and passive search and all sorts of reasons why our brain does this overnight 🙂
>>Yes placement of reward is HUGE! And can help so much it feels like cheating. A pre-placed toy and Prism is a superstar! Methinks CM too.>>No such thing as cheating in dog training! We get the behavior as quickly as we can, using reinforcement to the best of our abilities. The welfare of the animal is always front and center, and efficient, reinforcement-based training is next 🙂
>>I struggle with so much thoughtful planning! Now there’s an even bigger goal for me (pre-walk the path, the verbals, and the reward-EVERY TIME, GAH!)
Yep, everything is highly planned and choreographed at first with a puppy… then it becomes second nature and you won’t have to think about it as much. That is why the end result is far less important than the process.
>>I was stressed about the failures and lost my head.The 2 failure rule is what keeps me from getting stressed. It means that I have the opportunity to sort out better communication. Again, the end result is not entirely relevant, it is all about the process. Good process produces the end result 🙂
>> Good news is that I did 3 reps of the GET OUT game tonight (one GO, one short distance OUT and one longer distance OUT but neither very far lateral) and CM was brilliant! His favorite reward is frisbees which we used. (Redeemable?)>>
Awesome!!! And my dogs tell me that frisbees are LIFE so I am sure CM loved it 🙂
Tracy
