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Hi! Welcome back! You and Sir SB of Riverton looked great last night!
>>In the wonderfully named wind in your hair video, you are using a dead toy. Maybe it’s just an older video?>>
Do you mean in the Advanced Level, starting approx at 5:45? If so, then yes, the toy was placed (not because it was an older video :)) All the Baby Levels are done with the thrown rewards (like in class last night) because it is more of a shaping session at that stage: can the pup look at the
jump and move past the handler, while the handler is in motion?Then we change that for the Advanced level – The Advanced level places the reward for 2 reasons:
– the dogs have to turn away from it to do the wrap in order to get the reward, so it builds in a bit of a stealthy self-control element
– the placed reinforcement gets even more distance and driving ahead of the handler, similar to the Toy Races we started way back in November 🙂>> but when I have the toy in hand, Bob looks for the toy as I am trying to get him to go after wrapping. I’m sure it’s a timing thing… I need to throw the toy sooner, yes?
Because you will want to be able to run with a toy in your hand as courses get bigger, we need to teach him to not look at it. 2 ideas for you on the “Baby Level”:
– keep cuing and moving forward til he looks at the jump – then mark with a ‘get it’ and throw the reward. If you wait until he is between the uprights, then he is probably going to look at you because there is nothing else to look at
– carry two toys, one in each hand – one that is thrown and one that is just there – so he learns that just because there is a toy in your hand does not mean he should watch it. Do the same in the advanced level, when the toy is placed – still have a toy in your hand so he learns to ignore it in favor of looking at the jump.>> Is he MM something that could be used here?
I would not use the MM for him on these games – in the Baby level, it does not help with shaping him to not look at the toy. And in the advanced level, it will not produce the same speed and driving ahead like a toy would.
Let me know how he does!!
TracyGood morning!
Nice work with this game! I see what you mean about her wanting the food more than the toy. She was beginning to get the idea of focusing on the toy, especially when you put the toy down then released her then moved it. For example, at 1:07, she was GREAT about focusing downwards to the toy.But the more food was in the picture, the more she wanted to look up at you (because, starving. LOL!!) And the leaping was probably a bit of frustration along the lines of “I STARVING NO TOY NOW” haha!
If she needs treats to help her trade for the toy (highly recommend you keep doing that, think of it more as ‘clean training’ and not as a bribe LOL!), what if you had the treats off to the side on a chair, so you can run over, grab one, and trade – and then there are no treats in your hands or pockets for the jump element of the game,
But the other thing we can do is – use a food toy like a lotus ball or a treat hugger attached to a line. Because we are using this moving target to get jumping form, it doesn’t matter to me if it is a tug toy, or a food toy, or a bully stick on a rope, or a rack of lamb LOL!! (OK, maybe not rack of lamb haha
We just want her to look downwards 🙂 And using the food toy for this will make it very efficient. She has plenty of toy drive that we can use in other places, so this one is fine for a foodie toy 🙂>>I missed your intro to game #2 in the Zoom chat last night (demanding potty break) so I am excited to see the recording today & get the details. Fun class!!!>>
totally relate about those potty breaks!! I will post the video in a few minutes 🙂
TracyGood morning!
He was so fabulous in class last night!!The wrap verbal pre-game went well. I see what you mean about the right turns being easier than the left, but I am sure we will see that even out in the next couple of months. He did really well so you can definitely move to the other games now.
In this game (or similar games) you can totally use a cookie to line him up before you take his collar. He was avoiding the line up a bit because he is not a fan of being moved by his collar. He did better with the line ups when you tugged him into position, so either the tugging or the cookie will make it easy and smooth.
He is doing well with the stay too! You have been working on it, the stay is stronger now for sure!
he had trouble when you plopped the toy down – and seemed to do better when you gently placed it down. Also, for now, if you place it stationary and not while you are moving – release him then move the toy. If you placed it with it stopped and *then* moved it… he broke the stay every time. So either keep it stationary, or keep it moving – he was successful on both of those variations! And for our purposes, it is fine to do either of those in the upcoming games 🙂 And you can definitely move to the Advanced level of this game too 🙂Nice job here!!!
TracyGood morning and welcome back! He is so big now!!
The pre-game with the wrapping and verbals looks really good on the cone. He is definitely ready to see this on a wing, and then onwards to the tunnel/wing proofing game 🙂
His stay on pre-game 2 is looking really good! You have definitely been working on it! Yes, ti is harder when the toy is put on the ground but you did a lovely job of breaking it down so he can be successful. When you slowly put it down, he was able to hold the stay – good boy! You can also slowly put it down and take a breath and then release him, I think he is ready for that 🙂
When you added the jump on the 3rd video – he is holding te stay really well too! The hard part was the toy moving quickly to the ground, so he had trouble with that. Try to slowly lower it, more like what you did at 1:32 and 2:06, those reps were really strong!! And you don’t have to wait til it is all the way on the ground – as you lower it, you can release him before he breaks the stay.
You can use a cookie lure in your hand to line him up at your side, so he can sit facing the direction you want, on the side you want to lead out on. If he will eat he cookie but not go back to the toy, you can try a hand touch instead of a cookie to line him up 🙂
Great job here! Onwards to the games!
TracyHello and welcome back to you and the cutest little pointy gremlin!!! I’m so excited to see her do these games. C’mon, snow, go away, we have things to do!!!!
Tracy
Good morning and welcome back to Team Prytania!! I’m excited to see y’all tonight!
The pre-games looked good!! The wing wrapping was great, especially since you were pretty far from the wing and she nailed it! Yay!!
She is doing SUPER well with the moving target – usually it takes a couple of sessions to be able to drag it, even a little!
To get her looking at the end of the toy, you can attach a giant hollee roller or something and stuff it with fleece, so it is really visible and irresistible 🙂
And yes, you can have cookies with you – if you have trouble getting the toy back, trade for a low value cookie. And then you can also use reset cookies. The rep where she sniffed might have been partially because the game is hard, partially because she had a lot of reps by then (brain tired :))
But overall, great start! And she is ready for tonight!
Great job!
TracyPS – you’re such a fun, engaging trainer that both my puppies ran over to the computer to find you 🙂
Good morning and welcome back! I am excited for see more of Bazinga! Plus we get to celebrate her birthday soon!!!!
She did a great job on the wraps with the verbals, so easy for her.
>> Right is choo,choo,choo and left is sweet,sweet,sweet. Let me know if you think that left verbal is too wonky to use.>>
I love the sweet verbal! I don’t htink it is too wonky at all – at about the 1 minute mark here, you locked into a particular way of saying it and it seemed easier. It is a very distinct verbal so I think it will serve you well!
>>If I stand, it is hard to hold her collar…is crouching ok>>
Yes, sorry that I forgot to mention that sitting or crouching for the smallz was perfect 🙂
Great job here! Onwards to more fun ahead!
Tracy
Good morning! Welcome back! He is even cuter than ever!
He did well with the wrap verbals – I think the hardest part was ignoring the toy as the wing got further away, so keep the wing a lot closer for now and live by the 2-failure rule: if he fails twice *in the session*, make it easier and then leave it easier for the rest of the session (latent learning will kick in and cement the learning. He had too many failures here, so he had stress behaviors: scratching (he didn’t bother with the collar until after the errors started), shaking, jumping on the couch, slowing down. So especially now that he is an adolescent, that 2 failure rule will be a lifesaver 🙂
He was definitely happy to chase the moving target! Yay! The sit at :33 and 1:05 looked good! He doesn’t yet know how to hold the stay and let you drag the toy before the release yet, so you can definitely pump up his stay skills now with lots of thrown back reinforcement.
Great job! Looking forward to more fun times!
TracyGood morning!
>>and I felt like they were really hard!
Because they are really hard 🙂 Especially hard for less experienced dogs!
>>I didn’t think he was really paying attention to what I was asking for. He broke his start line a couple of times and just did what he wanted to do, aka the tunnel. Now that I think about it though, we were gone for the weekend and this was his first practice out, same day we got home. He may have just been really excited. LOL.>>
Now that we know a little more about what happens with adolescent dogs… it is possible that his internal biology was stimulated when you were away for the weekend (HPA Axis) so there was extra stuff floating around his system (like cortisol, adrenaline, CRF, ACTH, etc). And we also know that it takes adolescent dogs twice as long as puppies or adult dogs for their internal chemistry to return to normal (dammit! LOL!) Add in that he was in his training field and not a home, which also stimulates the HPA Axis (in a good way, but the body doesn’t know the difference and still pumps stuff out).
So in a nutshell – he was a little changed in his neurobiology and probably needed a day to decompress from DA MOMMA being gone for the weekend 🙂
Plus, adolescent brains often have training sessions like this, where we humans think it has all gone to poop – then they sleep on it, the learning gets cemented, and then they are perfect in the next session. Latent learning is truly amazing!
So in these situations, you can start a training session with something really easy like a super simple sequence, just to get him more in the zone before you try something harder.
I mention all this because the underlying neurobiology has really shifted my training views especially with our teenage dogs 🙂 In the past, I might have been like “whoa, naughty!” but now I am like, “Awww what a good boy, trying really hard even with all that internal stuff going on”. I know look at it more like he *couldn’t* fully pay attention, rather than he was choosing to ignore you (he definitely was not choosing to ignore you!) And you were really good with reinforcement, so overall these were strong sessions even if you didn’t feel like they were in the moment.
Looking at the first video:
>>I think this one was the hardest for him. Again, maybe it just took him so time to settle into the exercises.>>
Yes, possibly because he needed to settle in, and possibly because the position of the start jump made the tunnel extra visible and delicious 🙂 But overall a good session – from the handling perspective, try to keep slooooow steady motion on all of these for now. On that first rep, you released him and exploded forward, so he went into the tunnel. Great reset response, though! You were more stationary on the other reps, which totally helped him. So with the jump in this position, try to be in slow steady motion the whole time so he can process the verbals while there is motion.
2nd video – I really liked the slow steady motion on your very first rep! That was perfect. He seems to be reading your shoulders/feet – if you turn towards the jump when he lands from the start jump, he gets it right. If you don’t turn (closed shoulders) or take one step in – he takes the tunnel even if that is not what the verbal said LOL!
So to help him out, keep that slow steady motion but also either turn to the jump (as he is landing from the start jump) or move towards the tunnel. Try not to stop at all, and try not to send – just do subtle changes in your line of motion while staying in motion. This, as you say the verbal, should really solidify things.
3rd video – super nice line of motion on the 1st rep to the tunnel – slow steady motion with suble line cues and the verbal. 2nd rep – not turn of shoulders, so he took the tunnel (especially since he just got rewarded.
At 1:07 you turned your shoulders a bit and got the backside (but did it without motion). 1:38 had the good shoulders and a little more motion!You easily got the tunnel by facing it more (no shoulder turn) then got the backside with the shoulder turn at the end. Super!!
I think Grumio gave us GREAT info here about what he is processing! So now add the motion into both of these:
– motion forward, facing the tunnel, when you want the tunnel.
– motion forward, turning shoulders to the jump, when you want the jump.>.I wonder, after watching these, is my cue for the jump that I am physically crouching?
I think what you were seeing there was that you were stationary and turning your shoulders, so it felt a little crouchy. The cue appears to be the shoulder turn plus the verbal, so if you stay in motion, it will feel less crouchy.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!!
>>
I was totally not driving!!! I realize how this reads! EEK! I was a passenger all the way.>>Ha! No judgement from me – I totally play webinars via bluetooth when I drive, I just put the phone out of reach so I am not tempted to start looking at it LOL!!!
The handling 5 video looked great – easy peasy on everything. If you want added challenge for this setup, put a line on the ground (I use a leash) and have your motion run along that line every time, to challenge her to process your tunnel verbal versus the backside slice verbal without any motion towards the obstacle you want.
The line on the ground can run from the wing of the start jump all the way towards the camera, so you are running towards the camera the whole time: can she go to the tunnel without needing you to step towards it? Start with the jump in the easiest position first and see how she does 🙂
The backside wrap can still be handled like you did here at the end. Something to consider as you keep working Frankie and start course work with Bazinga is to have a separate word for the backside slice and the backside wrap, to help them know what to do even sooner 🙂
Looking at the switch video:
>> In AKC, we don’t see a lot of layering.
Not yet 🙂 But those challenges are coming, I guarantee it. We are seeing the international-flavor challenges like these switches, and the dog walk in the middle of the ring, and layering opportunities begin to creep in, mainly thanks to the more popular judges who also judge for UKI 🙂 So these judges are bringing these challenges into AKC within the AKC rules – the courses are lovely! But we need to have the skills trained 🙂 So while you might not need this skill yet, definitely have it ready for when it shows up at a trial.
>>Would this be used to switch away to a single obstacle ever? If there is no layering? Or does there always need to be a layering & longer line involved? I listened to the live chat & the discussion, about “switch” vs directionals but I’m still a little fuzzy on the application. Should I save this for those “special” akc layer moments and work on directionals for turn aways to 1 obstacle?>>
The specific definition of the verbal is up to you. For me, I wanted the dogs to understand that a complete change in direction and layering/distance on a line was next (to get more independence) so I use ‘switch’ only in these layering moments. When I am not layering, I use verbal directionals to match whatever the turn is (left/right or wraps, for example) because the directionals theoretically can mean turning towards me or turning away from me.
She is doing well with the concept here!! On the jump: You can definitely add the verbal now! Adding the switch verbal to the jump will help her look for the tunnel even sooner, because switch is specific to the line she would be looking for. Break is more about driving to you, so you needed the extra step to the tunnel (that extra step worked nicely). Adding switch will let you fade out the step to the tunnel as she learns that it is associated with the next line – and fading out that extra step will give you a huge positional advantage on the next part of the course!
On the tunnel exit: she is definitely getting the idea here too! Yay! She is turning a little wide as she processes the cue, but that is fine – you were doing this as a big layer and mainly on verbals, so she needed to think about it a little. The right turns at the beginning seemed a little stronger, perhaps? Your timing got better and better as the session went along: the earlier you said the switch cue, the better she turned. For example, the timing at :44 was great when you starting saying it before she went in the tunnel.
And it is fine to say “jump” on the reps where you had the jump perpendicular to the tunnel, to help support her commitment. At 1:06 you got quiet so she started looking at you, and then ended up skipping the jump to get the toy when you tossed it. A jump verbal will support her line until it becomes second nature for her (layering is weird for small dogs, because it is really hard to see us with the big tunnel in the way!)
I think that moment at 1:06 where she skipped the jump might have interrupted her concentration for a moment – she had a few misses on the switch after that. You stepped in to help her at the tunnel exit for a rep or two, then she got right back in the saddle and nailed it independently again. Yay!
Great job here! I think she is ready for Handling 6 Super Combos!
Tracy
Hi!
It is great to train and practice in new places with new people & dogs! She did really well! I think the hardest part was the stay – but that can be trained separately from these little sequences.She had a little trouble finding the jump when you were moving forward pretty quickly. At :45 you were saying jump and she took the tunnel. Yes, we want to keep the rewards flowing but you can reward a little differently to basically tell her “nice try, not quite right, try again”. Rather than throw the toy as if the tunnel was correct (the placement and timing will affirm that she was correct) – you can call her back happily, reward at your side with a reset cookie, then try again. I use words or phrases like “C’mere!” or “you’re cute, come get a cookie” or “oopsie!” to reset the dog so they come back to my side for the cookies. It is a subtle difference for us human – but a massive difference for the dogs 🙂
When you broke it down she did well finding the jump! Nice!!! The next step now is to add your motion, because I think motion is the biggest challenge for her (and for all the dogs, not just Changste). So when you are back chaining or breaking it down, be in motion the whole time like you would be on course, – the difference is that you can be in slow steady motion for now, and over time build it up to running.
>>We did not have much time but then less is more! sometimes!>>
I think the session worked out perfectly: some distractions in place, a bunch of good reps on the skill, then finished! Super!!
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
>>I tried to join the zoom class on Thursday but I was in a car and Zoom wouldn’t let me have audio. I guess there is a drive-safe mode that I couldn’t override. I’m sorry I missed it! I am watching the video this morning. >>
I guess our cars are smart enough to know when we should not be thinking about dog training LOL!!!
>>OMG Jitterbug is such a FuzzCute!!!! MEEP!!!!>>
Thanks, he is like a tiny teddy bear. He is virtually the same breeding as my Voodoo – both accidental, 10 years apart! I absolutely did NOT intend on a puppy right now but Voodoo is really special and I couldn’t resist getting another one like him 🙂
>>Frankie was AMAZING! We did not have a single off course! We trialed 3 days and she QQd 2 days!
WOW WOW WOW!!!! Being consistent like that with such a fast dog is REALLY HARD – well done!!!!!
>>I used the “jump,jump.jump” cream cheese spread verbal on a line of jumps that was pointing right into an off-course tunnel. The dogs needed to take a sharp turn right in front of the tunnel to a jump. I rear-crossed the jump in front of the tunnel and kept saying “jump, jump, jump” and she got it!>>>
Yay Frankie!!! Yay you!! The magic of cream cheese handling hahaha It sounds like you were connected and clear.
>>The bummer this weekend was that she was nervous in the environment. So that got us a few times. When she is nervous she runs slow so I probably had more time to handle because of that. There was a dog using the practice jump right outside the ring & it was aligned with the weaves and she saw the dog & jumped out of the weaves. I felt so bad for her because I could tell it was involuntary & she looked at me like “Crap! Did you see that!? Sorry!” and then she jumped right into the weaves and drove out ahead and did great. But the seed was planted and she was nervous all weekend.>>
Poor girl, I can see how that would have startled her!!
>> I really want to take the FACE class, because what I’m doing isn’t enough for her, but I just don’t have the bandwidth for another class right now. Maybe the next time it is offered.>>
TOTALLY understand the bandwidth thing!!! 10000% LOL!!! What you can try to add is the resilience games we did with Bazinga in MaxPup 1. Those games were all really easy for Bazinga, because she was a puppy 🙂 We never taught those resilience skills to Frankie’s generation, because we just didn’t know if would be useful. But Frankie can benefit from the pattern games and some of the later games in the resilience track as well – we use those with the adult dogs to build up confidence a lot too 🙂
>>We have nice weather today so I’m going to set up Handling 6 with Frankie. Excited to get back to it with her! >>
Have fun! They are challenging 🙂
>>Thank you SO MUCH for the extension, it really took the pressure off to not have to rush through the last set of exercises.>
The weather around the country has been INSANE so at least no one felt like they were rushing or missing out.
Keep me posted on how Handling 6 goes 🙂
Tracy
