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Good morning!
The airport games looked great – even with the lovely loud music 😂 He seemed very comfy there and was super quick with his responses. It is good to see that, because there is a stress element to flying so he was clearly regulating that easily.
>And I should maybe be scheming to get him over-aroused, so I push him far enough into arousal.>
Trying to center and optimize arousal will be a bit experimental for a bit, as you bring him into new environments and as his body ‘learns’ to regulate arousal. It is one of those things that the answers will come over time from trying different things and letting him give us feedback 🙂
Here’s another short video of mostly the up-down pattern at the airport on our way home today…the airport’s tunes, not ones I added 😉 He’s doing great with this.
Yay for the rain – no worries about waiting on the sequences. We will have plenty of time to catch up with them and the other games can all be done in the house 🙂
Tracy
Good morning!
The blinds went well here! Being able to send her to 3 really helped. She was great about holding the stay and finding jump 1!
On the first run, you got a little too close to 3 which made it hard to get back to the blind cross on time.On run 2, excellent adjustment to stay closer to 2 and send to 3, which made the blind earlier.
Run 3 had the best timing! As you were driving to get the blind, you started it as she was at 3 (:58) so it was finished and reconnected well in advance of takeoff to 4. You duplicated that timing with even more confidence at 1:17, and the blind as even better. Yay!
Great job here to get the send and adjust the timing while still being connected! SUPER!!
>as she doesn’t quite get the rear cross yet.>
Definitely try it, I think this is a. good sequence to work it out on.
>I also added a “good” and “break” cue in the beginning. Is that too much? Should I only use one?>
Is ‘good’ just quiet praise and she doesn’t move until break? If so, then it is good to use both. If good and break are coming together or good is meant to be something else, then it might not be needed.
>she will be 1 on August 2nd!>
Great, this is a good time to start adding a little more height, bit by bit, over the next few months.
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
>she loves her Chuck It ball a lot too!>
This is great – will she play with it at class?
Great start on the pattern games here! A couple of adjustments for you:
You can add in waiting a bit longer for her to look more directly at you. She was looking past you to where the next cookie might be thrown, so now we want her to look up more directly at you (hands, body, face).
And when you add your movement, you can casually stroll 🙂 We want your movement to be minimal so the movement and leash pressure are not what draws her engagement back to you – she will look at you or towards you after getting the treat. Slow movement will be the key to that.
The up and down game is looking good! She seemed pretty perfect with that.
For the 1-2-3-touch game: I think she was getting a treat from the hand instead of doing a hand touch. To an empty hand? So the next step here is to do 1-2-3-touch but she nose touches your empty hand. For now, you can then deliver a treat with your other hand (but we will fade that pretty quickly soon).
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning! Thank for tackling the walk throughs!
I like how when you added your connections, you were really looking at your invisible Rexx 🙂
>On walk through 3 and 4, my arms were higher than necessary, >
Yes, your arms came back up when you were adding handling and verbals but got lower again when you were doing the faster dog-speed walk through. And your arm was nice and low for the actual run – and you nailed it! Yay!
>I also noted that in my Step 4 run, I stopped way before the end jump!>
Yes, that is probably the only small detail to remind yourself of – handle all the way to the end, don’t pull up short.
The run itself seemed to go perfectly according to plan. SUPER!!! The handling was basically exactly as you walked it, especially the blind on the backside. I think you might have been a bit faster in the walk through than the first part actual run (be sure to keep connected in the fast walk through), but then he kicked into a higher gear of speed for the second half and overall the walk and run watched up really well.
Overall, it was great – thorough walk through that didn’t take that long at all, then totally nailed the run 🙂 Well done!!!
Tracy
Good morning!
This was a really good experiment and it basically recreated the issue. Yes, I am sure there is an arousal element to it and arousal is linked to processing – and it is mainly a processing question. When you are ahead and running hard, she is not able to fully process the distance between jumps AND mechanics needed to do it. So being more ‘in the picture’ where she can see you better and has less stimulation from the motion made a big difference here. Of course, it would be interesting to reverse the order of festivities and have you do the ‘staying closer’ rep first and the getting way ahead rep 2nd. But for now – on these big fast lines, staying closer is the winner.
>So I think that Fusion footing could play a part, but that it’s exacerbating a deeper issue of her not handling high arousal and a straight ahead “easy” line well all the time.>
I think the Fusion footing is unforgiving, in that she is unable to save herself and has the big tumbles. Compared to the grass here, the jumping question resulted in only a hard landing and not a big tumble. So be extra careful at Fusion, especially on the long lines where she has to read multiple distances between jumps.
Tracy
Hi!
The great news here is that he was more than happy to try doing sequences with you layering the dog walk, and his dog walk looked good too. That is a lot of good confidence on his part!
I think getting him to do the sequence was mainly a matter of you figuring out what he needed to see with the darned dog walk and yellow tunnel in the way 🙂 At :13 the high arm might have looked like a big ‘get out’ cue to the tunnel? Then it was a matter of showing him the converging pressure to turn away into the tunnel. It was hard to hear what you were saying but was it a switch or right turn cue to get the tunnel?
He got it when you gave him a little physical help just past the end of the DW (and took out the off course jump :)) and that will be easy to do from further and further away – but mainly I think it is a matter of exposing him to this type of thing so he learns that yes, he will run complex sequences with you on the other side of the dog walk. Up until now, he is probably most experienced with staying on a parallel line in this scenario, not doing multiple turns. But he will sleep on it and with some more practice, and lock it in so he can execute it nicely 🙂 and you can get ahead to the great position.
At the 12 jump, when you had your brake arm right towards his nose… he jumped right over it and had a wider turn at 1:31. You can do a bit of facing him like that and delivering a toy right there from your hand, before the takeoff spot, to help him want to decelerate into that cue and not jump over it.
>Also tried the ending with the correct side of 14 but the turn on 15 was extremely wide.>
The turn on 14 looked great! The turn on 15 was wide, probably because it was a post turn – that is a great spot for a spin to get the turn tighter and also get you facing the next line sooner. And as you rotate towards him, you can mix in rewards on the takeoff side to help him love to collect there too 🙂
Great job!
Tracy
Hi! Nice work on the Under Pressure games!
Rosie did really well – her brain was processing the challenges but they were easy for her (she is an experienced lady!). On the rep where she popped out, it might have been the distraction challenge, or it might have been that you were really close to the entry on that rep and that was what distracted her. Either way, she sorted it out really well.
Lily definitely thought it was hard! This is good to know! You were trying to make it easier but simply the presence of the object on the ground was really hard, and so was not having it there when she knew it was around. Very interesting!
She had a bunch of successful reps then a failure when you brought it back out… but then a bunch of successful reps. YAY!
She was better the next day, but it was still hard (especially the first couple of reps when there was something ‘new’ like when you changed the position or changed objects.
This is good information! To help her be successful immediately, you can have less exciting objects and have them further away, so they are still something her brain has to process but it is not as hard to do it. So maybe a less exciting object, 15 feet away? The goal is that she can come into the session and be immediately successful. Just do a couple of reps then in the next session, move the challenge a little closer or change to something else at the same distance.
The walk through went well! My only suggestion is to add more connection to your invisible pug in the walk through so it is fully rehearsed for the run.
The connection is what caused the little blooper at :12 on the first run with Lily – you didn’t quite connect as she exited the tunnel so she didn’t see where 3 was. The connection was really lovely on the 2nd run there – so add it to the walk through to nail it on the first run too (connecting to her eyes at the exit of a tunnel). The rest of it looked great!
It was good to alter the walk through for Rosie, to reflect her handling needs (closer and slower). Be sure to be connected to invisible Rosie during the walk through too 🙂 And you can add clapping her to walk through too, because it is definitely part of the handling she needs for her run.
Her first run went well! She was surprisingly tight on the line at :22 and almost took the wrong side of the backside, but you were connected and helped her find the correct side. Super! Nice adjustment there the 2nd time through to give her a wider line with a slightly later blind. And the rest of it looked lovely too!
Great job here!
Tracy
Hi!
He was a superstar with the rear cross! No problem at all! I bet you can get on his tail even more, applying more pressure to the RC line so you don’t get left behind much at all 🙂
You were in his way on the blind at :23 (he let you know allllll about it LOL) He said it wa sa little better at :36 on the 2nd rep with the blind – but he thinks it can still be earlier and I agree:) To get the blind earlier, you can do a bg send to jump 3, rather than drive him to it with motion. That way, as he is jumping 3, you are nearer to 4 and beginning the blind so it is finished before he takes off for 4.
The rest of the sequence looked fast and smooth!
>We didn’t do a lead out on this one as he does not currently understand the lead out serp. I need to work more on that separately.
>I bet all he will need is a ‘strike a pose’ refresher – the serpy opening is just the real life application of strike a pose 🙂
He is great with his hand touch – for added excitement, you can have your hand even higher so he jumps up more to come up and bop it. You were doing a bit of this and it is a really fun way to get the dogs pumped up. You can have your palm facing downwards to make it easier for him to reach up and bop it 🙂
The spins and standing on you are also great! Leg weaves and bow are also fun and cute 🙂 The next step with the tricks would be to put them into the volume dial game, and see how he does as the arousal state changes – which tricks are easiest for him to respond to, and are most helpful for getting him engaged and pumped up?Great job here!
Tracy
Hi!
Thanks for the videos – I totally see what you mean about her ring stress!
The good news is, we can work her through the steps to happy trialing which will make a big difference.
For now, though – I suggest not doing any more trials ‘for real’. While we put the pieces together, there is just too much stress in the ring and we don’t want to add more struggle to overcome.
>She obviously went to say hi to ring crew and judge…. >
It was not really saying hello… it was more of a ‘fawn’ stress response.
>While she has really nice weaves outside of the trial environment, she seems to occasionally be so stressed at weaves that she will run by them or find weave entry but not complete the weaves.>
For now, let’s put the pieces in place before you ask for weaves again. That will make it much easier for her!
The steps to focus on in Games Package 1 are:
– the action tricks and the Volume Dial game
– The NFC Step 1: Just Like HomeWhat does she like as a reward? Is she mainly a foodie, or does she also like things like toys, balls, or frisbees? This will help direct us in how to make the ring experience more rewarding/less stressful for her.
>I added the 1-2-3 nose touch to our warm up routine prior to entering the ring. >
Perfect! Practice this more away from trials, so she loves loves loves doing it and also so she doesn’t need food present. We will also be working on fading food and rewards out of the ring starting next Monday, which I think will also be a big piece of the puzzle for her 🙂
Let me know how the games go!
Tracy
Hi!
Sorry for the delay, it has been a wild 24 hours of storms, tornados, power going on and off, and a 9 hour drive mixed in there. Fun times 😂 😆>That made me spread the course out a bit, as you’ll see. (>
Yes, that added am additional challenge because he was having to read US Open Finals-style distances, so he was not always sure he was supposed to go that far away (plus it made the challenges harder to handle for sure). Enzo probably also felt the difference – they were having to take 3 or even 4 strides when they generally have to take 1 or 2 strides on the distances they are used to seeing.
>Besides the multiple backsides, which are mostly a handling/positioning problem for me, >
There is definite improvement with the backsides! He is finding most of them here really well, where a couple of months ago he might have defaulted to front sides on all of them.
At the beginning, the backside on 3 was good! You can lead out further so your front cross 3-4 doesn’t block the line to 4 (:08). Or you can keep him on your left and do a threadle slice on 4.
For a slicing Rc on 4 at :10, be sure to turn your shoulders and feet to the center of the bar (like you did when you fixed it). The initial cue did indeed look like a wrap cue, based on shoulder and foot position.
He found the backside well at :47 too! It was too severe of a RC so it pulled him off the next line – you can push to it from further away and try to handle from the landing side, which keeps you ahead more and shows the line.
The camera lost you on the line to the teeter 🙂
Nice backside after the teeter! Definite improvements on the backsides in flow!!Finding the weaves after the tunnel under the DW was a mind-blow for him: They were so far away they were not even visible on the video during the first rep there 🙂 Taking out the layering of the DW really helped but it is a good thing to isolate and practice because it is a really popular challenge lately. You can take out the distractions jumps to see if he can find the weaves in that scenario. And if he can, try it with one jump. Then add the 2nd jump.
He got the 16 backside really well! It was a bar mess after that – he was looking at you for more info at 16, then you were trying to get ahead for 17-18 but he still was not sure where to go plus 17-18 was a suddenly compressed distance.
The map supports the plan to push the other way on 18 for the slice, but the setup here supports the possibility of a threadle wrap (or blind to push wrap) on the wing closer to the tunnel. The setup might be why it was so hard to convince him to go out and find the backside there. One he got the backside, the last few jumps went nicely.
>Enzo got through it with only a couple bars down (and a really gross contact miss on the DW). Casper, who is supposed to have 2o2o on the DW was also missing his criterion.>
Yes, both dogs could probably use DW refreshers – use the Under Pressure framework to help them remember even when they are going fast and the distances are big.
The exciting distractions were fun to watch him work through! Definitely harder weaving away from it (on your left) than towards it (on your right) – I could see little questions/striding changes at first from him but the only big questions were when you had the toy on the ground. He worked through that really well, though!
You can totally do this with the dog walk. And, you can use a jump as a novel-exciting challenge with the weaves. Move it to different places to keep it novel and it will be a really good use for it!
>I started out being very meticulous about bringing him back to the house each time so he couldn’t watch me place the “thing” but towards the very end I just dropped it with him watching.>
Keep mixing up having the ‘surprise’ element of something out there that he didn’t know was there, with you letting him see you place it. The surprise element simulates the challenges at trials, so we do want to mix it in as well.
Great job here!
Tracy
Hi!
>I unfortunately can’t run fast because I have a mild Hamstring tear.>
Oh nooooooo! That sucks, I am sorry to hear it – at least it is mild.
He is a little handler focused right now…. But I will take it! This is the PoweR we want: focused on working with you and not biting you and ignoring the audience that was watching – all good! I wonder if a good training help at home would be to have your hubby watch from the porch with one of the other dogs out there, on a leash, as a bit of a distraction?
The first run went well – I am happy with how he is finding the lines, especially with the handler focus state right now. He checks in at the end of the first tunnel, so you can send to 1 from further away to be able to get ahead at the tunnel exit and smooth out the line to 3. He looks great in his stay and focus on 1! He read the middle line nicely, and then you can converge to the tunnel a little more to commit him to it, rather than turning along the line (at :27 & 1:05).
And you can approach the sequences as lazy game concepts, except now you are jogging: you jog along the sequence (protect that hamstring!) and toss giant treats like chunks of string cheese when he looks ahead at the line. And if he looks at you and doesn’t take a jump, you don’t reward but just keep going.
>After the first handling, I broke the second down to shorter piece.>
I think the camera didn’t catch that on film, but breaking it down is good and it looks like you were throwing the rewards too.
>We will be trying the social learning at class on Friday. Thats where he always leaves to go visit.>
Please keep me posted 🙂 Make it a grand time for whichever dog wants to work with you and I sure PoweR will want to join in too 🙂
Nice work here!
Tracy
I think it is ok to fix weaves as long as you reward it immediately – but bear in mind that it is a brand new behavior, so setting him up for success is critical. If you have to fix a lot, it is too hard and you will create unneeded stress.
T
Hi!
He is doing some really wonderful work in the class! Lots of understanding of big lines, getting his weaves (good boy!), long lead outs – very cool! Yay!Here is a challenge for you: make it a goal to get through an entire class without stopping to fix something, and without touching his collar. If something goes wrong, keep going on the line, reward. Then fix the blooper in flow. Stopping to send him back over something when there was a handling error is slowing him down here too. And grabbing his collar to send him back to something is also causing him to get super careful. So… no more stopping! Go go go!
>we had a major distraction trying to get into the gate with a newbie person and his turvuren thinking his dog could say hi to mine. Dog lunged at Brioche (not aggressively) and Brioche lost interest in me at that moment.>
Poor Brioche, that was a big dog! He was still having some stress response to the dog at the beginning of the 2nd video (sniffing, struggling to engage). While it is good to expose him to other dogs around in agility, it stinks that the guy was clueless. You can help Brioche bounce back with tricks-for-treats (or tugging) and one of the pattern games. He did well once he got going and he was further from the other dog distraction.
>Sometimes I feel like his jumping isn’t quite gauged right – rear a little high? These jumps are still at 10″. Should I be concerned about that and change something?>
This falls into the “No More Stopping To Fix” category. When he gets unsure because there has been stopping & fixing or you showing frustration, he slows down and gets careful. So what you are seeing is him being careful over the jumps, thinking more about figuring out what you want and not thinking about speed or his jumping mechanics. But if he trusts that you will keep going and won’t get frustrated or stop, he will thinking about his jumping.
For example – the wall jump is hard and new, so he went past it. No worries! Finish the sequence, reward, then break it down to show him the wall. By stopping and taking his cllar to scoot him back around to it, it gets him over the wall jump but also makes him a little hesitant as you are seeing in the jumping. So…. no more stopping to fix 🙂
Nice work here!
Tracy
Hi! Brioche is doing well with the sequences! He has really good commitment so all of your cues can come sooner 🙂
Sequence 4:
At :07 – he turned the other way due to late RC info like I bugged you about with Benni on the trial runs. As he is jumping 4, you should be moving to the center of the bar with some pressure on his line to cue the RC. You were earlier and :26 and he got it.And if something goes wrong: stop fixing things – keep going!
For the blind – as he is landing from 2, send to 3 with big connection. That will be earlier at :26, which will tighten up that turn and get the blind done sooner, which in turn will show him the next jump sooner.
> then he knocked the bar on the turn to the tunnel. With the sun glare, I’m not sure if you can tell why?>
It looks like the bar down at :48 was because the blind was late, so you were blocking the line when he landed from the jump before it. Then when he had a view of the jump and you did the turn cue, it was right at takeoff so he hit the bar trying to adjust.
For the next blind, you can tighten it up by adding exit line connection – looking back for him, original arm across to your hip, so the dog-side arm is back & out of the way and he can see the connection. The dog side shoulder was closed and blocking the connection at 1:05 so he was wide on the BC exit
>Sequence 5 – something is weird about this opening for both my dogs.
It is a serp opening, so to serp over 1 you should be standing next ot he line to 2 and should have your arm back more, center of chest pointing to center of the bar – it is the real life application of the strike a pose game. On the video, you didn’t really have serp position on the release, then ran forward kind of past 2 so Brioche was just looking at you for more info.Ideally, you would be in the serp position and maintain that arm back and connection until after he lands and looks at jump 2 – he was looking at you because he didn’t know where to be (you were lookng forward. This was more obvious at :33 when he didn’t know where to be – you were looking ahead and converged, so when you sent him back to 2 it looked like a RC cue. You handled it more clearly on the next rep and he got it
If something goes wrong: Keep going! Don’t show him any frustration or disappointment! It is very deflating and he slows down.
>Benni was insistent on taking the backside of 2 even when I used a serp arm or tried using in-in.>
>Usually that happens when the handler pushes back in too much, so the dog reads it as a backside cue.
It was fun to see him get the layering! You can set it up with more momentum by getting closer to 2 then accelerating to 3 – that way he won’t see you decelerate or get stuck by the layering jump, which is what happened at :14 – you decelerated and got stuck at the jump, so the cue to continue was late and your body was fully turned back to 1.
But with this too: Keep going then reward him – stopping to fix is frustrating for him because he is following your cues clearly. Stopping indicates that he is incorrect which is confusing, so he gets slow which we don’t want.
That is your main goal: cue early and keep blasting around the sequence, even if it goes wrong. No stopping! Let’s keep his speed and confidence up like it is when everything goes smoothly 🙂
Nice work here!
Tracy
