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Hi!
>>And. I Laughed Out Loud when you said don’t use YES as a marker word. Our local class instructor WANTS us to use YES as a marker. HA! I can see how that creates problems.
Please refresh me on what you use for a marker word in place of a clicker?>>Sorry for any confusion but “yes” as a marker that means reward is available can be very confusing for the dogs. I use “yes” to mark a behavior but I try not to have it also mean “reward is here!” because the dogs look at us when we say yes. So I use “get it” for a thrown reward or “bite” for toy in my hand. Both of those markers mean “you were correct, reward is available ” and it tells the dog specifically where to look for the reward. Much less confusing that “yes”.
>>She may not turn out to be my fastest or most talented agility dog, but she’s become a LOT of fun to train. Even with the heat, she’s out there giving it her all, with a smile on her sassy, adorable, little face
She is doing brilliantly!!!! Smart and fast! And being super cute is definitely a bonus 😍
Looking at the videos:
First video – really nice breaking down the skills and getting the mechanics! She read everything really well.
2nd video – you needed a bit more motion and connection needed on the 1st couple of reps, especially to the tunnel (you were pulling awau a little early) and from the tunnel exit (if you looked ahead, she looked at you.) Nice adjustments in response to her feedback 🙂 and you locked it in on the last rep, handling each part of the line with connection and then doing a super smooth, connected blind. Yay!
3rd video – 1st rep needed more connection from the tunnel, so remember to look for her eyes and point your fingers to her nose as she exits the tunnel, so she can see the connection.
On 2nd rep you got closer to the wing which totally helped, and more connection will make the timing easier.3rd rep – she got Big Mad when your arm came up and you pulled away from the tunnel too early. The reset was better (you drove to the tunnel longer to make sure she was committed)
And the last rep looked great!The race track on the 4th video looks really good too. She does best when you are near the wings for now, but with more practice you’ll see her starting to commit with more distance on these so you won’t have to run as close to the wings.
Excellent job here!!!!
TracyHi!
I see what you mean by trying to convince your muscles to do blinds and ending up doing spins about half the time 🙂 The spins looked good and so did the blinds! As you are moving into the blinds, it might help if you tell yourself to turn away from her (like a post turn) then do the blind. You don’t need to them fast – eventually sooner, but not faster. Slowing down the process might help you get your legs to turn away from her and not towards (which is the start of the spin).She read everything really well, spin or blind, and you had great connection.
The race tracks at the end looked awesome. Wheeee! Fun!
Her only question was on the countermotion wraps at :51 through about 1:10. On those, shift your connection from her eyes to look behind you to the “landing” spot as you move forward, to help support her commitment. You were looking directly at her while you ran forward, which was too much pressure to get her to go past you. And throwing the reward behind you to the wing will help build the value for that too.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi-
She was terrific with this game! She was happy to line up – especially when you were standing up straight and not bending as much (she did try to crawl into position on one rep which was adorable and hilarious 😆 )She was GREAT about holding the stay as you stepped away. Super!!! She was moving before the verbal release on the last 2 reps, but my guess is your hand was moving to throw the reward before you said the marker. So remember to keep your hand totally still, praise, mark, then toss the treat or release her forward.
You can add a little spice to this game by tugging before the line up and using the tug as the stay reward. That will probably get more arousal, which is perfect because she is going to be pretty aroused when you would use this skill.
Even with the toy, you can keep using the food as line up rewards. If that goes well (adding the toy), you can start fading the number of treats – maybe one to lure her into position, then one to reward arriving in position. Then you can start fading out the treat for arriving in position: praise her then move into the lead out, then reward 🙂Let me know if that makes sense, and how she does with it!
Nice work 🙂
TracyHi!
She is figuring it out nicely! Super! You were able to fade out the decel and she continued to find the jump, which is great.
You were handling the line more as a 180 by pulling away from the serp jump.
So now we can make it more serp-like by keeping you closer to the serp line which is harder. To do that, lay a line from the start wing to where the perfect serp line would be (using a flat serp jump if needed to dictate the line- you’d be close enough to touch the serp jump the whole time)Because that is significantly harder, we can dial back 2 other variables:
– angle the jump a full 90 degrees so she fully sees the bar
– send to the start wing from a little further so you can walk slowly through the serp without pulling away to get her to come in
You can noodle around with the placement of reward to see what helps her most – on the serp line, tucked in near the landing wing? In your hand to swing back as she is coming towards you?
Nice work here! Let me know how she does with the added challenge of you being close to the jump!
Tracy
Hi!
Nice work on these videos 🙂Smiley face FCs looked great at the beginning of the first video! He wants to look at you on the exit of the tunnel before going to the wing, so you can put the wing closer to the tunnel exit – that way he can see it sooner and drive to it more (and for now, throw a toy to the other side of it rather than reward from your hand).
Connection on the BCs and reward placement was spot on! You can still be sooner 🙂 Lay a leash on the ground about a foot before the wing – when his nose passes the leash, start the blind. If that goes well, move the leash to be 2 feet before the wing, still starting the blind when his nose passes the leash. That way you have a visual of exactly when to start the blind.
>>I still think the toy is sometimes a distraction when I am pointing at an obstacle. >>
If you are pointing at an obstacle, then you are disconnecting and yes, he might end up coming to you or looking at the toy 🙂
For example: there was a blooper at :48 when he rounded the wing and you looked forward to the next wing… that moment of looking forward looked like the start of the blind so he was correct to change sides. Watch it in slow motion and you’ll see you look ahead at the same timing he had seen the BCs, which looked exactly like the BC cue. Yes, he ended up on the side with the toy but he was not distracted by the toy there – he was just paying attention to the handling cues 🙂
You extra-emphasized the connection on the next rep there and he nailed it.
I do think having the toy in your hand is causing you to reward him from your hand mostly… so his first impulse is to drive to you. At this point, you should shift the balance of the reinforcement to the lines – throwing the toy a whole lot more (and trading for a treat or another toy to get him to bring it back :)) That will get him looking forward more and at you less. Or, you can toss a ball, those are easier to throw.
Great job with the race track – you basically connected, yelled verbals, and ran. Perfect! That helps support the line easily on those.
Serp versus tunnel:
>>Let me know if we were doing it correctly.>>
Yes! It went really well! At the beginning, standing still was the way to go 🙂 You had too much motion on the first rep so he has a blooper but when you stood still on the serps he was perfect on every rep. Yay!
You added a little motion at the end which went well. When you add more motion, remember to not get too far ahead – you will be moving the whole time with your serp arm back, and release just as you arrive at the center of the bar.
And the tunnel balance reps went really well too!!! This is a spot (tunnels) where you can throw the reward, to help him drive away even more as opposed to rewarding from you hand on the serps, where we do want him driving to you.
Great job on these! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
The rear crosses went really well!
>>Eventually, I decided to keep the toy in my dog-side hand & say the verbal that matched my empty hand. Just to help my brain.>>
That is fine for the rear crosses, because it will be correct each time 🙂
The GO reps looked really good, she is driving ahead really well!
Try to look at her more as she exits the wing wrap and not ahead of her (you were probably looked ahead to be prepared for the toy throw.The left was good!
The right RC – you just needed to run forward on the line to the center of the bar for a couple more steps at :20, You cut in behind her a little early so she looked back at you. :25 was really good and :28 was GREAT!
And the GO balance at the very end was terrific too, because she didn’t look to her right even though she had just been rewarded to the right 4 times. Super!
The serp versus tunnel proofing looked great too! The name card and arrow was hilarious at the beginning! I agree, she was great with her stays too 🙂
She was perfect with the serps, and almost perfect with the tunnels – on the first few reps when you were moving, she knew it was not the jumpsuit your motion and line was puling away from the tunnel a bit, so she was not sure if she should go with you or not. She nailed it when you moved on a parallel line to the tunnel entry until she was locked onto it, like at :49 and after. That worked beautifully!
She still needed motion to the tunnel (for now) – When she could see you between the uprights and not moving, she was convinced it was the jump (which is a valid guess). So you can dial back the amount of motion and walk very slowly, then eventually fade it out.
But, more important than fading out the motion, is getting her to differentiate between the serp and the tunnel cue while you are moving the whole time on both. So definitely try to be walking on both cues for now, and the verbal & upper body are what cues the different obstacles.
Great job!
TracyGood morning! Great sessions here!!! She didn’t seem bothered by the temperatures and you kept the sessions short and snappy 🙂
You had perfect connection and reward mechanics on the serps! And she was super brilliant to go into the tunnel after a couple of serp rewards. YAY!! Only one nitpick is that you can open up your shoulders a little more at 1:24 on the 2nd video so your upper body is facing the bar more (you were a little too rotated towards the tunnel). The rest of the serp reps were pretty perfect!
You did a great job of making the tunnel cue look and sound very very different so she was very successful especially on the first rep of the tunnel cue on the first video. YAY!
On the 2nd video, she had a little question about the tunnel because you were not really moving and you were still visible between the jump upright at :48. She seemed to know it was not the jump, but had to take a moment to process that it was indeed the tunnel (nice reward there!!).
At 1:53 on the 2nd video you adjusted your position relative to the jump a little and she had no questions about the tunnel cue… but came back out when you gave her the big YES! For all of us, YES has become an accidental “come get your reward now” marker 🙂 so try to use a get it marker for tunnel exits, so she can drive straight through to get the reward at the end. And try not to use “yes” as a marker (it is hard to not use “yes”, I totally relate!)
>>So after setting her up in a sit, as soon as I started walking across the jump, not even with my Serp arm out, she’d self release. Even with our practice I can see she self released once in Vid 2.>>
On the releases from the stay:
Try not to move your serp arm into position and release simultaneously, because she might start releasing on the arm movement. You can either have the arm back the whole time as you move into position, or put the arm slowly into position, praise for a second or two… then release.>>So, I thought this went pretty well. If we do ‘Moving’ next, with my Serp arm already out before I get to position, I’m concerned she’ll break her stay. I could wrap her around a wing first, or toss a treat that’s time consuming. But for proofing shouldn’t she be ideally ‘still’ ?>>
Let’s work the stay because it is going to be super useful for her to hold the stay while you lead out to a serp (soooo many courses start this way now). You can work it on the flat without a jump – put her in a stay, walk past and invisible jump with your arm out the whole time, then go back to her and reward her (or throw a treat back to her). The other option is to ask for the stay, lead out to a spot on the other side of an invisible jump – stop moving, put your arm in position, praise… then release her to you or throw a cookie back to her. When she is happy with that, you can add the jump in between you and her and repeat the process.
>>It’s going to get back up to 100 degrees for several days.>>
Ugh!!!! You all need a break from the heat! The tunnel discrimination element did not seem hard for her at all (yay!) so no worries if you skip it to avoid the heat. You can work the stay on the flat indoors, then add the jump so it can be pretty doable indoors too.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning! He did really well here!!! You can stretch that tunnel out so he can go even faster through it.
And now that we are into handling, if something goes wrong, reset with a cookie or toy because we are now in the realm of everything being handler error 🙂 Or, keep going as if it didn’t happen, then reward the next wing or tunnel (and fix the error on the next rep). I think in general you were rewarding or continuing, which is a good habit to get into!!
One thing to add to these tunnel wing games is more running 🙂 and less sending. The sending is where you were getting questions from him because you were either not quite close enough for his current understanding, or your lower body was turning away from the line you wanted. And when you were running at the lines? Lovely lovely work!!! Here are specifics:
Compare the first 2 reps here –
First rep – you tried a send to the wing from the tunnel here and on this rep you were a little too far from the wing, and too decelerated so he didn’t quite carry out to the wing.
Compare to 2nd rep – great motion and connection along the line and his commitment looked SUPER!
The first couple of race tracks looked really good! At :21 your turn to the tunnel was a little late and I think the MM was out there, so off he went LOL!
The blind cross timing will improve as you practice it and get used to the mechanics (you did a great job emphasizing the connection on the exit of the blind!!) His commitment will get easier to predict when he sees it more. When you started from the tunnel, he had a lot of momentum to the wing so you can start timing things earlier and earlier.
On your next session, you can move the timing up sooner: when he is 3 or 4 feet from the wing, keep moving but start the blind (rather than see him arrive at the wing and start it). The key to the blinds will be to keep moving through them and keep emphasizing the connection on the exit like you did.
He had a commitment question at 1:26 – as he was passing you, you were backing up from the wing so he was not sure about maintaining commitment. You can stay there supporting the send until he is at the wing and is turning his head around it on these sends (like you did at 1:36) then you can move away from it. It will get easier to leave sooner as he gets more experienced (only 9 months old, he is doing GREAT!) You can also look at and point at the ‘landing’ spot as you start to move away to keep building up the countermotion.
His commitment is really strong with movement and not as strong yet with sending, so if you wanted a good indoor game you can take a wing and do one-step sends – start close and gradually add more distance, working on the connection and the arm/leg send, and throwing the reward to him on the other side of the wing. It is a good cookie game because you can get a lot of quick reps with thrown treats 🙂
Your Diamond racetrack is off to a great start!!!
His question on the middle wing at 2:02 was him responding to your handling – you decelerating at the first wing and as you sent, you were turning away to wing 3 (look at your feet at 2:03) It looks like you kept going there which is a good response – keep going then reward.
You decelerated less at 2:13 but you were turning away from the middle wing – so even with the out verbal and a big arm point, the line of motion and position of your physical cue did not indicate the middle wing so he had a big question.
So to convince him to take the middle wing, clarify the line by running to it more rather than sending (that is part of what makes it so hard – the run run running LOL!!!). That will also get him driving the lines, and then we can add more and more distance.
And if you get a chance to play with sending on one wing, you can eventually send to the middle wing but let’s isolate the sending for now to pump up the understanding and mechanics of the handling: remember that on sending, you will want to look at him as you step forward, and your lower body should be facing the line you are sending him too rather than trying to turn to the next line. When he is committing to the wing, then you can move away.
Great job here!!!!
TracyYou are correct, sorry about that! It should be fixed now – let me know if it is still loaded wrong. Thanks for letting me know!
Tracy
Wow, you are incredible! What an amazing career and I agree – the Mattel version looks a lot like you. You are famous! WOW!!!
>>Others used to say, if you can fly a plane you can run a dog. My response?
‘Planes don’t have minds of their own.’>>HA! Yes! But my guess is that all of those years of flying have given you quick reflexes and nerves of steel. That is so cool!!
T
Good morning! Thank you for the update!! I am excited to hear about how well she is doing with the minny pinny – it is so much easier and more effective than the ways we used to try to teach left and right!
But I am especially excited about how she went back and forth from food to toys to food to toys. That is HUGE! You’ve been building it up and it is so cool to see it coming together. YAY!!
Great job!
TracyGood morning!
Serps are hard and you made great progress here!!!Angling the jump more was totally the right thing to do, it really helped her and it allowed you to get a lot of reinforcement in for taking the jump.
And you can keep it angled (or angle it more) so that you can run parallel to the jump with your shoulders facing it, rather than pull your shoulder away from it. That will keep you further ahead but it is also more challenging for her because she has to jump towards you. Shifting your connection to the landing spot can help too – instead of looking at her cute face, you can look back to your serp hand and the landing spot as you move past the jump.
You can also tweak the reinforcement placement:
Change the position of the MM so it is maybe one foot past her landing line (near the exit wing of the jump). That should make it less visible for her as she exits the wing wrap, and more visible when she takes the jump.Or if the MM is still too stimulating, switch to an empty food bowl and then drop the cookie into it when she takes the jump.
>>I’m losing her when we line up to wrap the wing. I’m not sure if I just don’t have her full attention yet, and I’m starting too soon or if I am too lateral from the wing for her.>>
When there were bloopers on the wing, I think you were both too focused on the jump LOL!! When you were more methodical with the line up and send: perfection! On the reps where you lined her up and held your send til she was almost at the wing (with big connection) she got it every time. If you were a little early to leave for the serp (or didn’t really connect) she came with you and didn’t take the wing. So the extra moment to li ne her up at your side, connect, and do a big (patient) send will clear up any of her questions.
The FCs went well! She seemed to have no questions about coming into the gap and NOT doing the serp when you did the FC (although she still did really want the MM as the reward haha!!)
Great job here!! See you in class later!
TracyHi!
>>So we’re tackling more than one game in a night. And these lessons are better done outside.>>
I agree, the time management of training baby dogs is the hardest thing!
I like to do more than one game in a night – and a timer is usually the best thing to keep me on track. Set the timer for 2 minutes, so you get 2 minutes worth of playing. Then when the timer goes off, end the session and assess it: was it fine and dandy (doesn’t need to be perfect)? If so, move on to a different game OR do the same game on the other side. You might not be able to do both sides on all games in one night because then the sessions get too long and we lose the dog.
If you assess the session and want to do more, that is great too – but it will also mean that you can drop one of the other games and play it a different day.My puppy training mantra is “progress not perfection” 🙂 So the timer really helps and the goal is to be “roughly right” and not perfect in each session 🙂
Tracy
Hi!
This is a really good first session! Yay! Her commitment is looking really strong: she did a great job finding the jump each time. At the beginning, I think she was a little unsure of what to do after the tunnel, so you can call her name so she knows to turn towards your line as she exits.
Also, you can throw the toy a bit sooner – look at her as she exits the tunnel and as soon as she looks at the jump, throw it so it lands before she gets to the jump (and before she looks back at you). That will also pump up your connection which supports the line more as you add challenge:
>>Yep. I got greedy and changed two things at once, more lateral distance and in front of the jump.
I’m think your video said solidify each position separately and the move out jump farther.>>Yes – you can be systematic and try not to add 2 challenges at once 🙂 But at 3:57, where she did not take the jump – you were pulling away laterally and not connected, so as she exited the tunnel she could only see your back and was not sure what to do (so came to you, good girl 🙂 ) Adding more connection to her eyes should support the line to the jump as you add more distance.
>>Should I use the shorter Black tunnel?>>
Yes, you can use it or stretch out the longer tunnel – I think the curve is pretty severe so she doesn’t always know where to be at the exit. But overall, she is doing great!
One more thought, as things get more complicated:
At the end, she was toast – note how she didn’t bring the toy back. You can spread out these sessions over a few days, or set a timer so you are doing literally 90 seconds of each game and that is it. The games now require a lot of running and a lot of thinking, so the pups will get tired. Super short sessions that are spread out will really help!Great job here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
