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Hi!
I think this session went great!!! There are a lot of handling options and it looked like he always got to the correct obstacle on the correct side (and some good Lizzo in the background too :))
For most of the challenges here (like sending to the tunnel or doing the blind between the jump and the tunnel) you can add more handler speed – try to start right next to him and the wing and run as fast as you can (which is pretty fast!) That will challenge him to pay attention to the verbals and connection, even when there is a LOT of motion.
>> Our backsides are still not independent and we haven’t worked the 360 wraps a lot so the turn is pretty wide to pull him off the tunnel.
The backside after the blind looked great and he did really well with the threadle slices too! For the threadle wrap, you can add more decel and turn him away on the flat a little more before you indicate the jump. It is a good skill to work on because it is becoming SUPER popular on course nowadays!
Since all this went well and you have room – leave the tunnel/jump close together like they were here, but spread the wing and start jump out so there is a lot more room to run run run! You can challenge him to read all of these cues when there is a lot more motion and excitement 🙂
Nice work!
TracyHappy Mardi Gras!!!! Great tunes here too 🙂
He did well on this first video – primarily he had to learn when to go past an obstacle to find another one (layering!) which was making steam come out of his ears a bit LOL!
>>With every sequence. He was telling me “I know what I’m doing, you don’t need to help.”>>
On the first few reps when he was on your left side, there was possibly too much handling help so that when the angle got really hard, he was still reading handling and had a couple of errors.
>>I ended up holding the collar to get him to listen to the verbals before I sent him.>>
Yes, this helped and also when you did that, you helped a little less with the handling/motion.
Ideally your handling path/line of motion is basically identical to minimize your motion – this is what happened on the last couple of dog-on-left reps and then you were handling a little less on the dog on right reps, so he was successful! Super! So you can revisit this and try to stay on the other side of the obstacle he would have to pass to find the other, stepping in as little as needed.Nice work!!
Tracy
Hi!
I am glad you had a great weekend!!
>>I only lost her to 1 tunnel trap >>
Do you have a map of this course? I am curious to see where she was tempted by the off course tunnel gremlins 🙂
She did really well on the Combo sequences! She had zero questions about whether you wanted the jump or tunnel – nice work!!!!!
>> I lost her to the wrong end of the tunnel quite a few times on #5. >>
Aha! This is GREAT to have on video! I took some screenshots but here is what was happening:
When you wanted to do the send to the tunnel, you were decelerating (which is fine) but then you were turning your feet and shoulders to the wrong end of the tunnel. You were connected, you could see her – but you were also pointing to the tunnel entry you wanted which blocked connected and turned your body to the wrong entry.You can see 3 photos here – the first and 3rd photos were when she took the wrong entry, and on the 2nd one she went to correct entry. Note how your feet/shoulders/chest were pointing to the wrong entry on photos 1 and 3, but your feet/shulders/chest were pointing to the correct entry on photo 2!
So to help her consistently get the correct tunnel entry on the sends: point less at the tunnel, and focus the cue more on her. What I mean by that is to keep your arm low, make BIG eye contact with her, and point out to the line you want her to take rather than at the tunnel entry ahead of her (which is what was causing too much rotation of the body cue).
That will end up looking like photo 4 (:55) where you were wanting to drive in more but actually you ended up in about the same place but with a much clearer cue: note how your eyes are on her, your hand is pointing to her, and that lines up feet/shoulders/chest to the correct tunnel entry. She is looking straight at it. Yay!
Here is the link to the screenshots:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1KIcMA13JQ7b-Pb1afhdNNXYUp1jZaF7MQToGsaYiGxY/edit?usp=sharingLet me know if that makes sense, everything else looked fabulous!
>>I looked ahead at the Week 2 games and we do not have a very strong/advanced threadle like the one pictured in the videos. Should I substitute a different move there?
You can try it with a bit of rotation on the threadle, where you rotate your feet too?
Great job here!
TracyHi!
He was such a good boy here, this is a hard game for sure!!! Yay! He had a lot of successes and was also very good about working independently of motion!
>>. It’s hard because I’ve always used a non-reward marker to let him know the exercise wasn’t correct and we need to try again. He and my other corgis were never very sensitive, so it never seemed to bother them. Is using non-reward markers too much? >>
I think that non-reward markers are the same as markers for negative punishment (which is withdrawing the availability of positive reinforcement, aka non-reward). So the dogs often lose a little ‘oomph’ with a non-reward marker because it tells them they are wrong without any real help on what t odo next. So try to replace them with a quick reset, something that calls him back to line, get a reset cookie try again. The difference I see is that the dogs maintain a lot of excitement even with hard games like this, and come driving back to try again after an error, versus freezing up a bit after an error (which is what he was doing, then you can see the lost “oomph” when he didn’t want to start moving).
>> At the end, he seemed to be guessing a little, so maybe I made the session too long?>>
It could have been that it was too long (23 reps or so is a lot when it is warm outside, his tongue was hanging out) or that he needed those reset cookies to happen really quick after an error (or both LOL!). I would try both – shorter session and quick reset cookies so he keeps driving to the obtacles.
>> I think I don’t know what my verbal for “jump”
Do you have any trials videos? You will be able to hear what you say in trials and more importantly, how you say it. For example, your tunnel cue was quiet and calm – you might say it like that at trials, or it might be a bigger louder cue at trials. If it is bigger/louder, say it just like that in this game too because he is differentiating based on the rhythm, pitch, energy and word, not just the word. That would also make the jump verbal sound very different, which can help the discrimination.
>>He seemed to really understand the “Go jump” or “go go go”, but I’m not sure what I want it to be. “go go go” means go on, but maybe he has generalized it to “jump” as it usually means take all the jumps in front of you?>>
This is possible, or maybe ‘go’ is a release to move?
>> could make the verbal just “jump” but I feel like that would mean just take a single jump? >>
It is good to define it all – when I say “juuump” (a slightly long word, not too loud), it means “take this one jump on a gentle curve”. When I say “GO GO GO” it means to stay on the straight line – so “go jump” would be confusing. Plus, we often say “go” with tunnels too, which would make it harder in discriminations.
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
Most of the reps here were super strong, and we found a spot where she struggles!The strong reps on the handling 1 were when you were ahead, running, and connection. Perfect! Handling 2 was EXCELLENT because you were connected and moving, so she read things very nicely 🙂
Her struggle is finding the jump when cued when you are not connected. That is what happened at :20 – you were disconnected as she came around the wing, plus she had just done a bunch of tunnels and the verbals were sounding alike… so she ran into you. You were disconnected on the next rep (:24) so she cut behind you to the tunnel. And at the very end with the naked verbals :), she took the tunnel with no problem but took the tunnel again when you said the ‘over’ cue (although she was not looking entirely convinced that she was right.
So it is good to know that she has one area of questions – we can sort it out! To do that, I suggest the Handling 1 game where you disconnect (or use ‘weak’ connection where she only sees part of your cheek but not your eyes) and move slowly. And make the verbals sound like you did on the last two reps on this video – the tunnel verbal was higher in pitch and faster, while the over verbal was lower in pitch and slower. That was great!
Everything else looked really strong! You can take a look at the week 2 games, she is ready to start them 🙂
Great job!
TracyHi!
Really interesting to see her take off after the 2nd rep where she was successful – low frustration tolerance for lack of motion!
You can help her out in two ways:
– after saying the verbal a few times with you totally stationary, let go of her and do an arm point to the correct obstacle. It will help her out a little, it will still build up the verbals, and it is easy to fade 🙂And separately – you can do a bit of a ‘lazy tunnel’ game by straightening out the tunnel and making it shorter, then walk towards the entry with minimal connection/handling, just saying the verbal. And BIG rewards at the exit when she takes it. That will help that argument at the tunnel! She doesn’t love the tunnel so this can help.
>>On to this week’s first game! This was REALLY hard once we moved on to the second side. We clearly need to play the stationary game more to help build this skill.>>
I can’t get it to play – youtube says it is still processing. Last night I thought it was because you had just posted, but now there appears to be a glitch. Let me know if you are seeing the same error?
Thanks!
TracyHi!
>>When you say more eye contact do you mean to look at him or the obstacle more?>>
Look at him more, because that will line up your shoulders better to the line you want him on.
T
Hi!
Well done with the videos!! I hope it was not too much anxiety because they all looked terrific!On the first video, great job with your mechanics – you were great about being super stationary and looking at him – and he was perfect about going to the jump! Yay!
>>t I have trouble with my reward markers as I am just learning to use different ones>>
You were consistently using them here! I don’t think Gibbs is totally used to them yet because he would look back at you when you tossed the reward, but he will figure it out fast 🙂
Video 2 was the tunnel verbal game – lovely also! Gibbs was happy to drive to the tunnel with ZERO handling help (and on this clip, he saw the ‘get it’ reward very easily and didn’t look back LOL!)
Video 3, this is the super hard version of the game (from the chair). He is sorting it out really nicely: at first he tried to predict which obstacle it was based on his line up spot, but then he was differentiating based on the verbal (and from neutral position).
Your mechanics were almost perfect here – great job paying such close attention to mechanics, a giant click treat for you! The only time you had a mechanics blooper was when he got the tunnel and you said “YES!” so he came back out LOL!!! The big “yes” verbal seems to pull the dogs back to us (I do this by accident too) so keep using the get it and if you accidentally say yes and he pulls off – no worries, he can have a reset cookie and try again without the big yes (and you took the “yes” out on the last rep and he was perfect!!)
Super job here! Definitely keep posting, these looked great!!!!!
Tracy
We haven’t set the date for the next one – probably next week because this week is NUTS between the webinar on Wednesday and then I have to drive to Florida for the ESPN invitational. I figure Monday or Tuesday of next week should work!
TracyHi!
Rocky was super on both of these!! He seems to have no question about how to read the handling on either video. Yay! That is great especially considering he is such a young dog! He looks at you when your hand is pointing forward and he can’t see connection, so try to use less hand pointing and use more eye contact.
He looks ready for more challenge: you can take out some of the handling and emphasize the verbals. You can do this by walking forward and just saying the words, but not really trying to handle or run 🙂Great job!!
TracyHi!
Sounds like you had a successful training session! YAY!! Bummer about the video!!>>This one looked simple til you got into it!
That is my goal: it looks easy til you try it… then it is very challenging! LOL !
>> Question: Do I have a choice as to how I wrap him around the wing? I was thinking for the last part, if I wrapped him around the wing from right to left, his trajectory would be out away from the jump and the tunnel might be more obvious…(or is that cheating?)>>
Wrap him the better line, which is the harder way, no cheating LOL!! We are trying to get it done with emphasis on verbals and the better line presents both obstacles. That will simulate what you see on course, so it is great trial prep!
Have fun!
TracyInterestingly, this post came through again – was it supposed to be a different one, or is the internet sending gremlins to mess us up? LOL!
Hi!
These went really nicely!!!
You were clear and connected and he really had no questions except a bar down ar 1:34 when you were a little off the line to cue the jump and he had to jump it at a harder angle (ticked it from the same angle at 1:58, so it is an angle to revisit to help him set up the jumping skill).Handling looked great, connection was great…. so an added challenge to this setup would be to try to rush more by sending less to the start wing – run to it then you will be behind in your timing for the other cues. That means you can run really hard an disconnect a little… kind of like what we do at trials LOL!!!! That will be more stimulating and less connected, so it would eb a good challenge to see if he can still find the lines on those 🙂 You can try the rushed approach on this setup (to simulate trial conditions) or you can try it on the week 2 games 🙂
Great job!
TracyHi!
I am so glad she is feeling better!
>>Sheseems to resodn to “jump” better than “Juuuump!”>>
I think it also had something to do with the volume – after :36, the volume of the jump verbal got quieter and so it helped gather her in for the jump, rather than propel her away to the tunnel. So definitely keep the volume softer on the jump verbal and nice and loud on the tunnel verbals 🙂
She had a little trouble finding the jump, so I think
we can also tweak the set up a little – the blue wing ended up sending her past the pink jump even when she turned super tight around it, so try to move the wing further away so as she exits, she can see the tunnel and the full bar of the front side – that way you won’t have to do any handling help!Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
The tunnel double whammy game looks strong!! She only had one question, which was at :50 when you didn’t step to the tunnel. But you had a great reset moment and a big step to commit her on all the other reps. Yay!
Time to add more motion 🙂 You can be walking forward as you are cuing the threadle (you were moving slowly so you can have a faster pace now). You started to add in more motion at the very end and she was great!
And throw in a couple of reps where you connect with her at the exit of the tunnel but just run forward and do NOT cue the threadle, so she doesn’t put herself back into the tunnel unless she is cued 🙂
The left/right minny pinny is also looking great – she completed the turns even though you were already moving away, and her footwork was really strong (one moment of rushing when she saw the toy but she was great on the rest of the reps). We will be building this up even more in MaxPup 2 🙂
Great job on these!!!
>>The volunteer wing wrap is something that I think I can do in the driveway or maybe in the house so I can try those suggestions.>>
Perfect! Fingers crossed for NO MORE SNOW 🙂
Tracy
