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Hello!
Ah yes, the moving target gets the jumping work significantly better! Yay!!! I agree, moving the toy before the release is the next step. Just be sure that his front feet are a little closer to the first bar (maybe 3 inches away) because on the last rep, you were dragging the toy before the release but he was a tiny bit too far from the jump, so he did a little front-foot-tap before the first jump.
Click/treat to you for training a great stay to make the moving target so much easier!
Question – was he looking a the toy when you released him, or at you? Ideally, he looks at the toy so you might need to release as soon as the toy hits the ground.
We can’t do jumping work on jumps every day (too much for baby pups!) but you CAN work this concept on the flat every day, by just doing the moving target pre-game on the flat: starting from a stay, you drag the toy about 15 feet ahead of him, then release him to drive to it. This doesn’t need jumps to continue working the head-down, rounded form we are liking – then it will appear on jumps when you do jumps once or twice a week.
The Wind In Your Hair game is looking good! Yes, we want him to drive ahead but part of the cue is acceleration from you – so now that the wing is pretty far away, you can add running. As he wraps, stay by the wing and wait for him to finish the wrap… then start running and saying GO GO GO like you did here, and connecting and throwing the ball when he looks ahead (only 10,000 things to do LOL!!). That way he drives ahead of you while you are running – using that whippet speed!
>>I tried using a ball instead of a tug because he will go after the ball and not take a victory lap. Let me know if you think a ball will make him hop too much.>>
I think the ball worked well and you were throwing it nice and early, so he wasn’t looking back and he was not being hoppy over the bar. Yay! Yes, he was a little hoppy when he arrived at the ball but that is fine 🙂
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
This was a really good session – she gives excellent feedback about your timing!The GO cues were consistently on time and really clear (nice and LOUD! Plus plenty of acceleration). SUPER!!!
The turn cues were harder for her – you can totally give them sooner (and nice and quiet, as compared to the big loud GO GO GO). Try to start them when she is about 6 feet away from entering the tunnel.
But more importantly, I think her questions were about the physical cues on the turns.
For the “turn” exits (left turns) she did really really well when you had clearly begun your physical turn before she was in, like at 2:04 – so nice!!! You got your ‘turn’ verbal going just before she entered on that rep too. I think you can do both the physical and verbal cues one stride sooner!
In general her ‘turn’ reps (left turns) were better – not because she is a lefty, necessarily, but because your cues were clearer and sooner.The swing cues for the right turn on the exit of the tunnel – that was harder for her indeed!! Like the turn cues, her question was based on the physical cues as well. On the first part of the video (the first session), you were decelerated as she was wrapping the wing, then you accelerated as you said “turn”, so she went straight.
You started fixing that in the 2nd session on the video – definitely getting the cues in sooner. She had her best right turns when you stepped backwards like at 1:46 and at the end. What I think will help more is if you accelerate out of the wing wrap so as she exits the wrap before the tunnel, she will see you decelerate and make the turn to the wing… all while she is about 6 feet away from entering the tunnel. That should get the swing turns as tight as you were getting the left turns. Placing the toy got the turn, but it creates the behavior even if the handling doesn’t – so when the toy wasn’t there, she was correctly reading the handling.
Nice job here!!! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Hi!
He did really well here, and he seems to be understanding the concept that he needs to process cues in order to determine if it is the wing or the tunnel (rather than just go to the tunnel :))He was very successful here, and he was reading it off the physical cues. That is fine for a first session, especially because you were using post turns for both the tunnel and wrap physical cues, so the cues were different but similar enough that he had to differentiate.
And he is also definitely listening: at
1:01 you started with “tun” then switched to the check so he was confused and looked back at you: “which is it, human?” LOL! You can reset with a treat there because he made a really good effort to sort it out.Now, the next step is to make it on verbals only 🙂 The way to do that is to hold his collar so you can say the verbal 3 or 4 times before he moves… then you let go of him so he starts to move. This allows the verbal to really pop out (without the collar hold, he is moving with your motion and ever-so-subtly waiting to see what you do). With the collar hold, you can get the verbal into his ears, then let him start moving before you move.
If he needs you to move to support the verbal, that is fine to start with. Then it is easy enough to fade out your motion so he does it all on a verbal.Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
>>How do I continue to make progress on games from week one while the week 2 and beyond gets posted.
The games generally build on each other, so think of it more as concept building over the weeks, and less as trying to get each game perfect. He will learn the concepts that transfer to all the different games, even if you don’t get to play each game more than once or twice. And if you skip something, no worries, we will come to it again in a later game.
>>Do you want to see some if the fixes I try to implement or do I just live in and continue to work things on the side (so to speak). >>
Because time is limited and we can’t over-train the pups, you can either implement the fixes with a re-visit of the game, or by adding them to the next game (depending on how much time you have :)) So for the wing-tunnel games, for example, we want to get him looking at the line more and at the momma less by changing the placement of reinforcement. You can do that with another round of smiley face games, or in the next game with handling (like the tunnel exit games). It is more about training behavior that will work on any sequence than it is training specific sequences.
If it helps put things in perspective, when I filmed the demos, I believe my youngsters only saw each game once or twice, I didn’t have the time to do multiple sessions of the games. And they were able to transfer the concept forward to the next game.
>>Do I keep moving g my tunnel from smile to straight and ba k to work this stuff? It concentrate on one set of games at a time.>>
You can keep things spicy by switching the games up – more fun for the pup and gives a broader foundation.
>>Can I set up the pill bug with other stuff or is using agility equipment the best?>>Anything that is big enough to run around is great, like a bunch of wings in a circle. You can also use trees and stuff like that 🙂
>>Do you suggest to work up to advanced levels over the course of the upcoming weeks?>>
Yes, there is a lot to play with – you can start with the baby level and see how he does. If he says it is fine and easy, you can go to the advanced level in the same session or in the next session. If it is hard, you can stick to the baby level for a bit and revisit the advanced level later on.
Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
I think the set point is looking great – her form is really strong and she is holding her stay even with the lead out and dragging toy. YAY!!!
Her form is better when she is a line closer to jump 1, in terms of getting balanced between the 2 jumps. At 2:03 and 3:26, she was a few inches too far away so she landed a little shorter/closer to the first jump which causes her to be shorter/closer to the 2nd jump too on landing. So, stick with the closer set up point (3 inches approx) and it will be perfect!Next step for this is to take it outdoors. There are 2 reasons for this:
– to get her jumping on a different surface, which is pretty important and changes mechanics
– to get her ready for the next grids which will be a little too big to do indoors 🙂Great job!
Tracy
Hi!
This went SUPER well! She is SO SPICY here at the beginning! So much to say! LOL!!!
>>There’s no time for me to say Tunnel more than once and get out the directional, just not what I normally do.>>
You might get a chuckle out of this… you were actually too early on a lot of the reps, which is probably why you were feeling rushed 🙂 You were tending to start the turn cue when she exited the wrap, which is a bit too soon and probably why it felt rushed. You don’t need to start it til she is closer to the tunnel (4 or 5 feet before the entry at the earliest) which should give you time to say tunnel a couple of times then switch to the directional. Feel free to put a cone out to the side or a line on the ground, to mark the spot where you need to start the directional.
On the videos:
Video 1 – She is reading this really well! You are a little early with your left verbal on the tunnel on the first rep, and had better timing on rep 2. One thing to be thinking about: the forward verbals like TUNNEL and GO can be loud, and then you can be softer with your left verbal (and other turn cues) to help her process the difference using volume and pitch, not jus the actual word.
Video 2:
The turn verbal was a bit too early on rep 1 here 🙂
O the wrap after the tunnel, to get better commitment as you move away, you can shift your connection: look at the landing spot behind you as you move away from her (not at her). You will find that the initial training of countermotion is helped when we look behind us as we move forward.2nd rep – better timing of the turn cue! She was closer to the tunnel but not in it yet. You held position at the 2nd wing longer to get the wrap there, but you can leave at the same time as the first rep and shift your connection behind you to the landing spot.
Video 3: wow, after getting such nice turns, you had great timing with the GO and got straight lines on the exits. This is excellent!
And GO is very stimulating so she might need a quick victory lap to the pool after each rep LOL!
2nd rep – your verbals were good but your physical cue turned and left her before she had a chance to finish coming around the wing so she (correctly) followed the line of your motion. That is rewardable.
Compare to the last rep where you supported the line to the tunnel til she looked at it and then had good timing of the GO verbal too!
>>I didn’t realize until your last critiques how much she looks to me for eye contact and direction. Since I’m prone to running into wings etc>>
Yes, connection is key to handling, especially with pups! I bet your older dogs rely on connection a lot too, but with their experience it is probably much easier for them to see a bit of it and know what to do With Mochi, she doesn’t have the experience to pull information from, so she needs the full connection for now.
>>Trying to look at her nose, such a cute nose
keep my arms/hands low and shoulder open to her.>>That little nose is SO CUTE!!! I thought your connection was GREAT! The only spot to change what you were doing with connection was on the countermotion moment on the 1st run of the 2nd video.
Great job here!!!
TracyHi!
This pill bug game is harder than it looks! And you both did a great job. And yes, starting on a wing wrap instead of a cookie throw is great – she seemed to understand the assignment at the very beginning when she took off to run around the tunnel instead of wrapping the wing LOL!! Smartie!
The connection to keep her on the side you want is challenging with such a little dog – it worked best when you had your arm down and pointing at her nose, like at
1:38 – 1:43 and on the reps after that. On the reps before it, when you were doing regular running, she didn’t see the connection as well so had a question about which side to be on. When you had your shoulder back to her, she had zero questions (something happened at the end of the last rep, not sure what it was, but it seemed like she read you well there too!)You can experiment and see if it is easier to get this great connection like you did here, or by locking your elbow with your arm extended back and down to her nose. There is a time and place for both in agility handling!
The only thing to adjust here is. To call her name less, maybe just once or twice at the beginning of each rep – too much name call might get her looking up at you.
>>I’ll need to figure out the connection and path at the same time. One of my instructors taught me how to spot points to know where to go and when to turn, but now those spot points may be behind me.>>
The lower you look, the more you can see! Looking downwards to her will expand your peripheral vision. And, spotting the points works great – now you can use points behind you to spot when you are connecting back to her.
You can play with the more advanced levels of this – feel free to use wings or barrels to replace a 2nd tunnel 🙂
Great job on all of these!! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
He is doing really well here! It is super fun to start running baby dogs on this stuff because it tells us how much or how little we need to help them.
Turns out, Chip doesn’t need a whole lot of help 🙂 Yay! And when you help too much, you either get in his way or you over-help him and that causes questions. When you let him fly and trust him? Perfection!!!
1st rep – Very nice! You pretty much trusted him and cued the lines and moved to the next one, so he had no questions. Only one detail – try not to transfer the toy from hand to hand as you do the FCs, it delays you from finishing the rotation. You can leave the toy in the same hand, or have it in a pocket so you don’t switch it around.
2nd run –
>>I’m probably handling him too closely, so he a$$ passed me – lol.There was a little of that here (handling too close), at :15 where you walked into the FC on the tunnel, and ended up on the wrong line so he had to go around you and he vocally gave you some feedback LOL! The dude has opinions! LOL!! On the other reps where you cued him to the tunnel and left for the next line? No questions from him and no verbal feedback from him 🙂
On the ass-pass moment at :22 and later on at 1:02, 2 things happened to accidentally cue it:
– As you were exiting the FC, you were moving laterally to the other side of the tunnel, kind of backing up a bit, so he read that as the line you wanted.
– And the connection can be clearer as you exit the FC (keep it very direct but keep moving forward), so it took him a moment to process the connection. When he processed that and you moved forward instead of laterally/backwards, he realized which line you wanted and went to it, good boy! (ending up behind you to do so)
Compare those moments to the wrap on the other wing at :57 – you sent him to it, rotated, connected immediately, and moved forward, so he had no questions and did not ass pass LOL!
The rep at :57 was more like adult-dog handling, and he rose to the occasion. Yay! The ass pass reps looked like you were trying to help him more than he needed, so you ended up over-helping him.
When you added the racetracks and left/right turns, I think you were over helping by getting all the way to the wing to push him around it, then using the ‘right’ verbal then ‘here’, because the here pulled him between the wings.
You didn’t use the ‘here’ on the next rep (left turns) and he was great! You can use more of a parallel path for him, running parallel to the line to the wing so he can see the whole wing – with your connection and a parallel line, I bet he finds the wings easily!
Overall, your connections were really strong and your arms are low – both of those are HUGELY helpful so keep up the good work with that! And you were getting all of those verbals out too – lovely!!!
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
Wow, he is doing so well! Yay!!! Lovely commitment from him, he is driving the lines really well and turning beautifully. And your connection looks terrific!!!!
You can start giving all the cues sooner – for example, you can be giving the wrap cue (or left/right) as he is exiting the tunnel so he drives directly to the wing and doesn’t look at you at all. For example, at :13 your ‘check check’ was pretty timely (as he was exiting the tunnel) so he drove pretty directly to the wing, versus the ‘cap cap’ at :17 which was late (he was almost at the wing) so he did a little zig zag into you before going to the wing.
His race tracks for the left & right turns looks great!
Nice spin timing at :21, you were decelerating as he was passing you and rotating before he got to the wing. Nice! Keep the verbals going – he seems very verbal and when you get quiet, he looks at you (like at the exit of the spin, he hesitated until you said tunnel).
The 2nd run went well too! I think you were running out of steam from all the running, you were getting quiet and decelerating 🙂 But he is reading motion really well and his commitment looks great!
The only wide turns were on the exits of the tunnel, because the info was a little late (after he was in the tunnel). I added a tunnel exits game this week, so you can totally work on that and add it into the other games 🙂
Great job here!
TracyHi!
On this video with the racetracks, I felt you were in that sweet spot of being connected and moving along the lines, so he committed beautifully! Yay! And his wraps and tunnel commitments look strong too (his only question is a little zig zag to the tunnel at :31 when you were not as well-connected and you didn’t say tunnel, so he was waiting for more information and curled in a little.I will bug you soon to add more directionals on the wings (wrap verbals and soft turn verbals) but that is a lower priority for now than the placement markers to get his eyes more on the line. The markers can be thrown in anywhere you see him looking forward, no need to wait til the end of a sequence. You can surprise him with a reinforcement for looking forward to any element of the sequence, which should help build up the looking forward behavior 🙂
Great job on all of these! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
On these race tracks, I feel like you are having MUCH better connection, almost too much because it is causing you to not move as much so he was not sure if he should stay on the line the you moved away (like at :10)You had the toy here and he was definitely aware of it and watching your hand – so we can use this simple game as a framework to teach him the fine art of looking at the toy does not get the toy – looking at the line gets the toy. So when he looks at the line, you can toss the toy forward on the line to both mark and reinforce the looking ahead. Using a ‘get it’ marker or any marker which means “reward is out ahead” will help, and also when you do reward from hands in other games, using a “reward from hand” marker will help clarify where to look.
For example, I train alone so I do all of the reward throwing 🙂 I figure you are in a similar situation! I emphasized the ‘get it’ marker for thrown toys, and I tried to consistently use a “bite” marker which means ‘come get the toy in my hand’. This clarification really helped my herdy dogs know where to look so they end up looking at the line a lot better and at my hands/face a whole lot less.
His commitment is looking really strong, so we can totally use this game as a framework to add markers for the reinforcement placement and getting looking at where he want him to be looking. And then you can add verbal directionals too!
Nice work!
TracyGood morning!
>>I’ll try to clear a spot with the blower to be able to play on grass.>>
That is a great idea! Fingers crossed you can get a clear spot because OUCH no one wants to run on marbles!
The smiley face games are going well! His commitment is looking good. I totally see what you are saying about the handler focus. I don’t think it is a baby dog thing, so we can help him focus more on the line. 2 ideas for you:
– ramp up the connection to his eyes as you move in and out of the FCs on the wings. That will help him look forward at the lines more. For example, at :31 you were not really looking at him, so he looks at you. Compare to
:32 after the wing wrap exit – great connection so he never looked at you and drove straight to the tunnel.At :35 you were looking at and talking to the wing so he came into you looking a you and did not take the wing , so more connection will really help there too!
More connection to his eyes will help but also I think changing the placement of reinforcement will make the biggest difference:
Even when you make GREAT connection, like :45 – :53, he still looks at you especially when he is getting close to you, even leaping up a little when he gets to your side. This is most likely due to the placement of reinforcement coming out of your pocket from your hand at your side, with him facing you. So like a smart border collie, he is figuring out how to move on the line AND watch you (and the reinforcement) closely. 🙂 That is likely the root of the handler focus you are seeing, which then gets affirmed when he watches the delivery of the reward.
Easy fix: no more reward from your hands or pockets 🙂 It can be tossed out on the line after the tunnel or after a wrap, so he learns that watching you is inefficient. It will be even easier if you have someone else to throw the toy because it is so hard to place it on a line in this game, but you having it scrunched up in your hand and throwing it will definitely shift his focus to the line more.
Using a very visible cookie to throw will work well here and might even be a better choice because it might be harder to track the throw of something smaller, but also you can use a toy -this is a great time to sort out any toy play questions he might have.
Great job!!
TracyGood morning!
The side eye at the beginning of the smiley face video was so funny! Ha!
Lots of great work in the smily face video. You are making this game fast and fun for her, which is the #1 most important thing!
The first set of reps, where it was basically wing- tunnel-wing, looked really strong. She has excellent commitment! And you are consistently connected to her on the exits of the FC on the wings – NICE!!
One thing to add more of is connection to her eye when she exits the tunnel on your right side.
When she exits on your left side, you have your head turned back to her, like at :26 and :36, which gives clear info where to go next.
When she exits on your right side like at :22 and 1:29 for example, you were looking ahead to the wing and not at her, so if you free the video when her face appears at the tunnel exit, she is looking at you for more info. Compare to :40 where you were a lot more connected as she exited and she didn’t have to look at you as much.
You can also do more running with your arms low and just tucked at your side like you are jogging or sprinting, rather than up high. High arms block connection for the smalls 🙂 So when you are doing the FC on the wings and connecting with her on the tunnel exits, your arms are brilliantly low and she sees the full connection. Compare that to the race tracks at :48 – :51 and your arm gets as high as your shoulder. That blocks connected so she looks at you as she comes around the first wing (at 1:09 too).
Terrific job getting all the verbals going!
You asked if the tunnel cue at 1:31 should have been the tunnel threadle cue – yes, I believe that would be a better use of the verbals there. She read the handling brilliantly!At 1:38 and 1:46 you added the spin (FC to BC move). She read the line brilliantly but ended up on your left when you wanted her on your right, due to some lateness on the reconnection after the blind.
Starting the FC element of it sooner will really help (before she gets to the wing) because then you can start the BC element sooner too – not faster, because you were really fast, just sooner :). Starting it sooner will allow you more time to make the re-connection after the blind. By the time you got your eyes back to her eyes (1:39 and 1:48) she was already on your left side and heading to the tunnel (good girl! Nice reward there!)You got the connection in sooner at 1:58 so she got to your right side (yay!). She didn’t go into the tunnel because of your big “YEAH!” Which is the universal verbal for “cookies now” haha! But the handling looked strong there!
Set point – looking at the September video first, this is going well! I think this 3 foot distance is the sweet spot for her.
Her stay looks great (only one crazy moment LOL!), her position relative to jump 1 looked great (she hit the noodle on the last rep so she might have been too close there, or maybe it was that you crouched after saying the release to that distracted her).Her form over jump 1 is perfect. I think the MM might be a little too close to jump 2, because at first she was a little leapy, going more up than over, but that is normal when we use the MM, we get some leaping 🙂 Then she smoothed it out but she was decelerating over 2 rather than powering over it, so moving the MM another 5 or 6 feet away from jump 2 should give her room to land powerfully, take another full extension stride, then get to the MM.
You being low at the MM really helps her with her form! It will be even easier when the MM is on wheels 🙂 but for now, keep getting low to direct her focus downwards.
I think we can add a bar to jump 2, maybe at 4 inches, and see how she does!
Wow, the March video is a great comparison, she was such a puppy back then! It is pretty amazing how things change in just 6 months. She is a lot more mature now and has much better mechanics, just a few months later. You can see in the March video that she is going fast too, but not nearly as coordinated as she is now. What a fun comparison, I am glad you had the video!
Great job on all of these 🙂
Tracy>>It’s always the thing you forget when you get a puppy – how much crap you have to manage at once LOL.>>
TRUTH!
My philosophy is that we need at least 4 arms to be able to train puppies LOL!!!! And maybe 6 arms when they move as fast as Lu does 🙂
T
Good morning! Nice talking to you last night on Zoom! I am excited for what is ahead!!
And I am VERY happy to see him in action here 🙂 He is definitely ready and did great on these videos!
Looking at the set point:
His stay looked great, and the moving target accomplished the goal of getting his head down and powering off the hind end. I think overall his mechanics look really good, and only one tweak: he was too far from jump 1 on all the reps except at :54. By being too far, he had to spend a lot of time (in dog time haha) figuring out how to step into the first jump, so you can see some lead changes and even landing on the bump a bit. But when he was in the sweet spot at :54, he was balanced and showed lovely form.That sweet spot had his front feet just under the length of your foot away from the first bump. So you can use your foot as a measuring tool: lure him into a line up with his front feet next to your toes. Let me know if that makes sense or if I need more coffee 🙂
>>Looks to me like he needs the jumps closer together?
Actually, I think he will need them further apart pretty soon. How far apart are these – my guess is he will end up at 6 feet apart pretty soon, especially on grass. And you can try to get this on grass while the weather is still good!
The wind in your hair game is looking good! His commitment is solid to both the wrap and the jump, so now we can look at getting more distance, verbals, etc.
For the wrap – you can use your wrap verbal on that (I don’t think you were using it, or maybe it was really quiet 🙂 )
The GO verbal was really clear!
When you were doing the GO to the jump, he looks at you a lot – either directly or peripherally. The super early reward throws helped a lot, but it looks like it as hard to pinpoint the moment he looked forward and throw the toy, all before he looked at you.The best reps where when you had the toy placed out past jump 2 – he didn’t look at you at all. Yay! So do a few more sessions with the placed reward as a target, and then we can go back to throwing it when he focuses on the jump more and looks at you less when it is not there.
Some of the bloopers were connection errors, especially when he was wrapping the barrel to his left. If you disconnected and looked ahead (like at 1:40 and 2:25), the disconnection actually looked like the shoulder movement of a blind cross so he read you correctly and ended up on your other side. Good boy! When you showed strong connection on the exit of the barrel wrap (like on the last rep), he was super tight and stayed on the correct side. Connection for the win!
Nice work getting more distance added and tons of speed. He seems to bring the speed to everything he does, so we will be sure to use reward placement to get the mechanics and line focus as we build up the skills.
And this game can go outside onto grass too – that will make for different mechanics for him, and it is good to show him that before the snows come (or before you come south for a month in the winter LOL!!)
Great job here!!! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
