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Hi!
Sounds like you have had a busy couple of weeks! And hope you are feeling better!!!Great job with FEO #1. Looks like the goal was engagement, play, tunnel. Mission accomplished! A great first ring experience! And it is amazing how fast the time ticks by
On the 2nd run, really liked Prytania’s engagement when the leash came off and on the way to the tunnel – SUPER! And the jump-tunnel-jump mini sequences were just perfect. It looks like Prytania had a relaly strong experience and that is sooooo important. Terrific job setting that up for her!!!!
You can keep sprinkling in happy experiences like this doing FEO, adding in some stays, etc – the #1 goal is to have a happy time in the ring with no added stress 🙂
>.Only goal for me… to be less soccer mom 😳🤣! It’s soooo hard.>>
I am sure Annalise will help you out by reminding you LOL!!!!
Great job, Team Prytania!!!!
Tracy
Hi!
>>But we continued to play all the games. We’re getting better at engagement but it’s sporadic. You’ll notice I make all the mistakes. Pizzazz makes none. I posted the hiccups as well as our successes.>>
Yes, the dogs do the best they can with the info we provide 🙂 And in the moments when something goes wrong on course: it is really important that you do not react or stop or mark it or anything: just keep going as if it was completely correct, even if you have to make up a line 🙂
There are a couple of reasons why it is really important to keep going rather than stopping, even if you give her a cookie:
Staying in motion will be more motivating to her because stopping is deflating – she read you correctly, so stopping because it was wrong can be confusing! Continuing will be motivating, which helps her stay super motivated in general.
Also, staying in motion helps you think on your feet and make adjustments in the moment while staying connected, which is a useful agility skill!
So try to retrain yourself to keep running no matter what, no stopping until the end even if there is a blooper.
>>I’ve added the start line stay since we’ve been playing Leash Off Engagement On with mixed reviews. She doesn’t leave the stay but she looks around not at me.>>
If sh eholds the stay and is motivated and focused when released, then she doesn’t have to look at you. You can also add in the volume dial games to help optimize her arousal, which can generally help her look at you more.
>> I still have food on me but mostly I run with empty hands.>>
Terrific! Keep working towards being able to sometimes run with no food in your hands or pockets.
>>Our RR game with squirrel distraction is also mixed results. It’s always on leash. We play that every day.>>
One thing that will actually help is to NOT play it every day. That game is really hard, so play it every 3 or 4 days, and then let her brain and body reset on the in-between days. If you play every day, she doesn’t have time to let the arousal in her body reset back to normal levels.
>> I’m able to leave the station about 20 feet and she loves to do the actual tricks/skills but it requires me to jump around like a crazy woman to keep her engaged until we get away from the station to do a trick. If I try walking away like a normal person then ask for a hand touch, for example, she’s already disengaged until I bring out the crazy woman. I can keep her pretty much engaged if I run with her on the leash.>>
While it is not a bad thing to have a lot of energy in training, I think she also needs to see this game with less energy from you so you can simply walk away. 2 ideas for that:
– play this game in a less distracting place, like a quiet, distraction-free hallway in your house.
– don’t worry about distance, just take one step away and if she moves with you (without you talking to her or doing a dance routine), mark it and run back for the cookie. Engagement in this case is simply moving with you. No worries about tricks yet until she can move with you.The sequences are looking really good! Yay! She is reading the information beautifully!
On the first couple of sequences, I think you made things a little harder by starting with her on your right then threadling her to the tunnel, then having to run hard to get a FC to show the next jump. A smoother and less complicated way to show the line is to start with her on your left 1-2, then you will have an easier time getting her to your right side for jump 3.
On the first sequence:
You had a connection break at :25 where you looked forward while she was behind you, so she ended up on the other side of you – that is a perfect place to just keep going rather htan mark it and stop, to keep her motivated. She followed you correctly! The connection was much better on the 2nd run so she was able to see what you wanted and did really well. Super!!!On the 2nd seq – you had a handler error at :14, and marked it and stopped… she was reading you correctly, so you can see that she started stress sniffing there. Just keep going, even if things are not perfect.
The question she had there was because of conflicting indicators: your upper body indicated the threadle side of the tunnel, but your lower body indicated the other side of the tunnel, which is where she went. When you were clearer about it on the next rep, with upper and lower body working together, she was great and then got the straight line beautifully too.On the 3rd sequence: really lovely connection on this run, and all of your cues worked together in harmony, so she nailed it. Happy dance! The rear cross switch looked especially good!
On seq 4 – She had a question about the straight line – was the reward out there off to the side? Looked like she was driving to it for a moment. That causes the handling of the wrap to not be as clear – so it is another place to just keep going, rather than stop. Dogs know that agility is a running game (not a stopping game LOL!) so even with a reward there, the stopping can be deflating.
The 2nd rep was much smoother and she did a great job on the lines! Adding in a bit of deceleration as you are cuing the wrap will help her tighten up that turn.
On seq 5 – super nice run! You had really clear smooth handling (nice blind nice rear and nice GO lines!) and great connection so she nailed it. SUPER!!!!
Well done here 🙂 Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
>> If she stayed in…which she did…I was going to reward. But, I was facing the tunnel and she took it. No harm, no foul.>>
Exactly! You were both excellent 🙂
>>First is snuffle like you suggested.
I think the only thing she needed was a clearer transition away from the snuffle mat, like picking it up and then walking away with the pattern game going. After having her entire focus on the snuffle mat, she needed a moment of mental reset after you moved her away from it. She moved away from it pretty well, but she needed a bridge behavior (mats goes away, pattern game starts). You can also have it closer to the ring, so the transition is faster (and a friend can pick it up for you).
>>However, on ring approach she’s watching the action. FAST was in the far ring>>
The environment is a LOT! And it is fine for her to notice the action. I don’t expect her to ignore it entirely 🙂 What we are mainly looking for is arousal regulation and I think she did GREAT here!
And, to help her be better prepared to be ringside at a trial – playing these games ringside in class with the exciting dogs will REALLY help. I think you have kind of avoided that a little LOL! But it is a great opportunity to work that piece of the puzzle.
And, a great step to add in is the engaged chill – she might not like the calmer petting, so it might be the pattern game delay version of it – but that game is great for existing ringside without getting too stimulated by the action.
>>I took her leash off and she just left.>>
Wellllllllll I think it was a cue confusion issue in that moment. Watch that section of the video in slow motion:
– Leash off at :28-:29– You were facing her, you took the leash off, she stayed there (:30 – :31).
– note how she is making eye contact with you (happy dance!) at :31 as you are thinking about the next thing for a heartbeat. Engagement right there!!!
– You did a quick turn towards the jump for a heartbeat (:32) and because she was engaged… it looks like she mistook it for the cue to go take the jump. Oopsie! Video is a wonderful thing because she definitely did not just take off when the leash came off. It was just a little miscommunication, plus I will chalk that up to lack of experience on her part. She will soon realize that when you are in the line up process, that your slight turn to the jump to sort out your location is not actually the cue to start. I am confident she understands that in the training/class setting, but I am also confident that she does not (yet) understand it in the trial/higher arousal context. Working this in class by having her closer to the ring when her wilder classmates are running will totally help!
No worries though, because watching it back, she was not disconnected, she just made a bit of a young dog error due to inexperience. So for now, you can slow your mechanics down and ask for the line up before you turn to face the jump (take the leash off after she is in a relatively good spot to be asked for the stay).
After that blooper, though, she showed magnificent good arousal regulation. By bringing her back, you were basically saying “That was incorrect” which is fine and I would have done the same thing – and that is where a dog might shift into overarousal and struggle. Not Sprite! You’ve done your arousal regulation homework so she came back right, lined up, held a super nice stay while you fixed the bar then did a lead out – and ran brilliantly.
That, plus the arousal regulation after the a-frame error, are the biggest wins here. HUGE!!!>>>>> I wasn’t surprised she didn’t stop with my BC. First missed contact. >>
If that error was not surprising, you will want to work that to fluency in class with high arousal before adding it back to the trial setting.
>> Probably I should have put her back on leash and walked in again. But, I didn’t.>>
I thought you made the right decision! It was fine to call her back and ask her to line up.
>>She just disconnects in that piece.>>
That will get better with experience – she will get more and more comfy in the trial environment. But I LOVED how she engaged when the leash came off, especially with the eye contact that you would prefer she offers. You were busy in that moment so you probably missed it, but video shows it clearly. Yay!
>>I’m not sure why I didn’t try tugging her into the ring. I feel like she’s so high that will make it worse.>>
Try it! It might actually really optimize arousal! What we are seeing is that a lot of dogs are happy to do the pre-run stuff like tricks/snuffles/patterns, then tug on the way to the line (or at the line) – then they are brilliant. Tugging won’t make arousal worse – lack of arousal regulation will make it worse 🙂 and so far, she is doing GREAT! So happy with that!!!!
>>Still can’t figure out rear crosses.
They get set from the previous obstacle so that you can move to the center of the bar of the RC jump. There are some juicy RCs in the sequences from the various games packages, so feel free to pull them out and we can work on the RCs!
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! I am glad you are having fun!
I don’t have any running contacts classes here, upcoming or as independent study courses (just not enough hours in the day to add running contact training LOL!)
Two of the classes that have been getting great reviews are from Katarina Poplipnik Capuder: http://www.funtasticdog.com/on-line-classes/
and Kirstin O’Neill:
Tracy
Hi!
This is a great update!! Modifying the leg bumps to be slower/calmer for now with the 2 bowls was terrific! And I am glad you are both enjoying the 2 head down trick 🙂Here is something to try while she is recovering: teaching her to pick things up and put them into a basket or bin or something. It can evolve into teaching her to put away her toys, or even stacking rings on a toy like this:
It s a calm, controlled game where you can shape her with the clicker to take something out of your hand or pick it up from the floor and put it in your hand. Then put it in a bin or bowl, then eventually onto the ring toy 🙂
Here is kind of a finished product – this dog was learning to bring a ball back for some flyball work, but for Kishka you would not want to throw the item yet because we don’t want her running. You can just put it down and shape her to pick it up.
Have fun!
TracyHi! How are you feeling? Hope all is well!
>>With Robie, I have always used the name of the first obstacle to release him on course, and I was planning on doing the same thing with Yuzu. When I taught the stay to Robie,
When I taught the stay to Robie, I used “get it” to release him to a thrown toy, food bowl, manners minder, etc. Do I need to teach a specific release word?>>This all sounds great, plus you already have experience using the verbals consistently with Robie. So it is great to do this with Yuzu too, and no, you don’t need to add another release to the mix. You can add a ‘catch’ marker for when we throw the reward back to the pup, if he doesn’t already have one.
Keep me posted!
Tracy
Hi!
Fingers crossed that all is good with his toe! He was moving really well here and tugging beautifully too!
He did really well with the focusing forward and driving ahead.
He wanted to turn to his left even when you were on his right side (when he was starting on your left), so you can be moving away from him more (towards your right) to help convince him to turn to his right.
When his toe is cleared, you can add more distance and running to this! Try it outside if the ground is not too wet or slick!
He also did really well driving to you with the decel, You can have your magic cookie hand in place sooner – let him see your hand in position as he begins moving towards you, so he can lock onto it – that will help him decel more and also help him predict the pivot is coming. When you do the pivot, you can start the slow pivot just as he is getting to you (rather than feeding him then pivoting) – that way he can keep his butt in nice and tight to your leg as you are pivoting. He swings out a little wider when he stops for the cookie, so the pivot should help him bend into the turn.
This game can go outside or into a bigger space as well – you will see we add in handling combos in weeks 2 and 4 which use the acceleration, the decel-then-pivot, and also the blinds.
The blinds looked terrific! He had no trouble finding the new side and your connection was lovely. Ideally, a toy reward would be best for this but you would definitely want to have more room to run when you add the toy.
Wing wrapping with the bowls looked great – so if he in the groove really quickly like he was here, you can change something more quickly. Pushing the upright out a little was pretty easy for him but then he hit a bit of a wall where he could wrap to his left (moving toward your left) but had a little trouble to his right (scooting between you and the wing a lot. We seem to be seeing a left turn side preference! So when we see that, you can move the upright out a bit on the left turn reps then back in when he needs to go to his right (you can move the upright while he is eating :)) That way he can be equally successful on both sides.
Next up for the wing wrapping, separately from adding distance: you can start changing your position to standing. You went from low kneeling to high kneeling here, so the next session can start with you on the couch (and the upright very close to you) and if he is happy with that, you can move to standing up (with the couch still behind you, so he is less tempted to go behind you :))
Great job here! Keep me posted about his xrays!
Tracy
Hi!
>>the couch+standing gate made for a good chute and we’re doing flat and inclined klimb right now. He loves it.>>
Terrific! I am glad he loves it!!
Wow, his turn and burn is looking awesome!! tight turns and super fast!!!
Because he is doing so well, the next step is to add your wrap verbals. Iedally, you would have a verbal that means wrap-to-his-left and a different one that means wrap-to-his-right. Or, you can do a wrap-towards-me and a wrap-away-from me. Short sounds or short words are best for wraps, like checkcheckcheck and digdigdig (those are 2 of the most popular ones).
When you have chosen the verbals, you can then hold his collar, start saying the verbal… then send him to the barrel to start hte turn and burn.
You can also add the wrap verbal to the handling combo – send to to the barrel with the wrap verbal, then use your go go go to accelerate to the toy. He was great with the wrapping and ignoring the toy, when you tossed it behind you!! It was mentally challenging for him, when he took the toy for a quick run and then couldn’t quite bring it back at the end: “mom, I need a moment, that made my brain work REALLY HARD!” LOL! He was terrific, and those impulse control moments do often require we let the pups run around to help reset their brains after that difficulty of the game.
The handling combo looks great, so other than adding the wrap verbal, you can also do the FC to get a side change at the barrel before running to the toy – and you can also try the advanced level with the decel/pivot .
Great job!
TracyHi!
Congrats on your super successful weekend, both with Kaladin on course and with Lift on the road trip!!On the video – good girl for ignoring the massive disraction of her brother chewing a treat at the beginning! That is hard!
I think the initial setup was too hard – new location, space behind you, brother on the bed chewing, toy bin was a little too far from you. So when you reset it an took out some of those options, she was able to get things rolling and offered some good wraps!
At around 2:10, she asked for a decompression moment by trying to take the toy on a walkabout 🙂 You can help her reset the arousal there (because it is a hard challenge) with a bit of tugging and throwing the toy around, then you can ask for more wrapping. Those decompression moments canhelp her think through the challenge, especially in new locations. She had some really good turn and burn moments at the end too – that was really lovely because doing it all in the new place with new distractions was hard!! Good girlie!
When you get home, you can start with the turn and burn using her familiar barrel – and if she is happy with it, you can start adding your wrap verbals.
Great job here! Safe travels home!
Tracy
Hi!
I think the collection sandwich is beginning to take shape, and we can definitely help him out with somethings to get more hustle.If he is having trouble going back and forth from toys to cookies to toys, you can split that part out – start with a toy , then put it away and switch to cookies for the rest of the session (then go play with the toy at the end, but far from the cookies smells :)) That can help build up that skill – it is a hard skill!
For the game, I think clarifying where to find the start cookies and giving him the visual target to drive to at the end will make a difference – and a food bowl might be the answer to both!
You can can start each rep with the cookie in the food bowl, and you can send him to it from 6 feet away (or further, if he really loves to drive to it). As he is arriving at the bowl, you can start running away – he DEFINITELY liked the more motion i nthe 2nd video than the calmer motion in the first video! That way, when he sees the added motion, he will drive towards you with a lot of speed and that will allow you to do the blind followed by the early decel, then pivot.
Then after the pivot to drive ahead:
he definitely liked the prop but didn’t really have to accelerate to get to it, probably because it is hard to throw LOL! Instead yu can use the empty food bowl that is already there: accelerate to it and the cookie reward goes into it.Let me know if that makes sense! I think that can smooth things out for him 🙂
Nice work!
TracyGood morning!
> I have added in the resilience games and a sort of snuffle mat thing at the end of each session.>>
This is great! And sometimes you can just go back and forth between tugging and a snuffle mat, so her physiology ‘rehearses’ bouncing back to baseline/
Looking at the rear crosses:
>>She doesn’t understand what I want and I am not sure what I can do differently.>>
If you freeze the video on each rear cross moment (see below) you will see that for most of them, she had already arrived at the prop and started turning towards you before you started the RC info. So to her, it looked like the turn and burn game (front crosses) on the prop. Which is why she had the same response as when you play turn and burn 🙂
On 2 of the reps (1:16 in video 2, 1:32 in video 3) the RC info was starting before she arrived at hte prop, so she turned the correct direction.
So in the next session, move the prop further across the room so there is more distance between your starting point and the prop. And do a bit of parallel path warm up like you did here, that looked great! Then try the rear cross, with the goal being that you cut behind her sooner, so she sees you on the new side when she is at least a full stride away from arriving at the prop. That should help! And if you are too early and she doesn’t touch the prop? No worries 🙂 reward anyway 🙂
Here are the RC moments to freeze on the videos:
Video 1 –
:36, :44, :54, 1:08 124, 1:34Video 2 –
:59, 1:08, 1:34, 1:46Video 3 –
:33, :44, :55, 1:12, 1:43, 2:03, 2:14>>Two sedate ready dances earned me some instant feedback. She nibbled at my knee! And then later grabbed my pants. I feel bad that I am frustrating her, or causing whatever emotional state that generates the gentle attachment of poodle teeth to clothing.>>
She probably needs an outlet for the ready dance, which can be practicing it with a toy in your hand so you can then let her tug hen the arousal state changes. That can protect your clothes and flesh 🙂
Nice work! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! You are doing great – definitely not behind! And it is good for the pup’s resilience to take days off – it helps the body rest and reset 🙂
Tracy
Good morning!
She did really well in the new location! Her engagement and responses were basically the same as you have at home: SUPER!!!
After the blind crosses on the first video, be sure you decelerate almost immediately. You were running til she was very close to you then doing the decel into the pivot a little bit at the last minute, so she had to slam on the brakes. Decelerating sooner (after her first of second stride towards you) then doing the pivot will give her time to coordinate the collection into the turn.
She did a great job with wrapping her box then driving to the toy! SUPER!!!
On the 2nd video, the parallel path looked really strong too. For the rear crosses being close to the prop made it easier for you to show the rear cross line, and she did great! YAY!! When you don’t want to do rear crosses, you can practice this game with more and more lateral distance.
Super job on these! Remember to build in a day off here and there so she isn’t doing this stuff every day – we want to let her brain reset in between training days (lots of science behind the physiology of stimulation so we want to give the body a day or two to not ‘work’ so it can reset itself for baseline.
Great job here!
TracyI am glad he did well with his bed in the kitchen!
For jumping up at treats or toys in your hands, you can try 4 things in the training sessions:
– in the transitions, like when you are removing the toy/treat and moving into offering or a cue, you can give him a bridge behavior of tossing a treat on the ground for example, which can give you a moment to get the toy and treats situated for the training or next rep.
– keep your hands quiet when you are holding the toys/treats during training and while he is offering. The quieter your hands are and the less they move around (for now), the easier it will eb for him to ignore what is in your hands,
– having the treats or toys less visually present can help too, even if it means putting your hands behind your back for now. Eventually we will be able to have them very visually present, but starting them a little less prominently can help him learn to ignore them
– add in specific verbal markers for when the reward is available from your hand A marker for “now you may take the toy” and “now you may have the treat” can really clarify when he should try to engage the reward versus when he should not engage it.
Let me know how he does!
Tracy
