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Good morning!
>>He still won’t really play with toys outside of home or the barn, places he’s familiar with, and I don’t really push it. But I do try to play a little and I hope he’ll be more comfortable with play in all sorts of places eventually.>>
It will come! Keep doing what you were doing with your no-pressure, all-fun approach. And being able to use toy play in training is priceless, even if he ends up being a super foodie in other locations.
>>I haven’t done much training ’cause I tend to sit and worry when one of my dogs isn’t at full health, so I’ve just been waiting around for Dreamer’s tail to heal.>>
This is relatable! I am glad to hear he is getting the stitches out soon and will be back in action!!!
>>Though now I’m having another stupid physical thing of my own that’s flaring up, so I kept things short with Kaz.>>
Ugh! Feel better soon!!!!!!
>And I was out of cream cheese so I used butter for the teeter. LOL he loves butter!>>
I admit to never have thought of butter as a reward – but also, everyone loves butter! LOL!!! I wonder if the fat content is same or higher than cheese or cream cheese? And I wonder if you can take some ‘boring’ treats and mix them with a little melted butter to get the butter effect? Or maybe just some toast? Now I am hungry LOL!
The mountain climbers looked great – he definitely was into the butter!!! And that helped him be super confident driving up the board on both videos! And he mostly did the wrap wing before the teeter – that was probably the hardest part!! Since he was so happy here, I think you can move the chair that is supporting it out by less than an inch, so there is the tiniest bit of tip of the board. Almost so little tip that he doesn’t notice it! And do one rep with super high value reinforcement (might be a dab of butter!). Just be sure to no do so much butter that his pancreas gets angry about it all 🙂
The wing wrapping looked great too – he basically had to leave the highest value food reinforcement ever in order to get it… good boy!!!! And he maintained it even with you cheering and moving away. Super!!!! So I think we can get creative with some butter use and see if that helps as you start to go to more distracting situations!
Great job here 🙂
Tracy
Good morning!
You and Baxter looked great in the live class!! It is so cool to be able to train the dogs like that – big thank you to Zoom! LOL!!!!
Looking at the bang game –
Happily, he is confident with this game and very comfortable jumping on and riding it down. Even starting without you LOL!!!I agree about the defaulting to the sit – his initial position is great and I believe he moves into the sit because he is looking up at you. Your instinct to stay a bit bent over and release him fast was correct! But to preserve your back and build on this behavior, you can also more of a targeting behavior: I like the smalls to do a front foot target to a long thin target attached to the end of the board (where your current food holder is attached). I use a strip of duct tape (or during covid I used leftover masks LOL!)
The dog can either do a touch-and-hold with the front feet, or you can teach him to scratch at it with his front feet. Here are some visuals to add on:
When he has the foot targeting going, you can add it to the bang game. And, you can do immediate release, as well as you moving forward past it (I do all of that on the plank first before going to the teeter).
Mountain climbers are also going really well!!! There is some tip to the board and he is feeling really confident about it. He is moving fast enough that hissed is beginning to move the wing under the teeter (watch the wing under the teeter rather than watching him on the video) – time to get something more solid so there is no risk of the wing falling out from under the plank while he is running up it. There are some solid adjustable saw horses and step ladders out there that might do the trick!
He seemed very happy to let you move forward, away laterally, etc – YAY!!! I love the confidence!!!! And he likes the action of it, because he is driving up the board with a lot of passion for a for reward (and food is good but has never been a great reward for him LOL!!)
>>I had to call him away a couple of times because he looks forward to running up it and get that treat at the end. >>
You might have to either carry him around while you get ready, or lure him with a treat in your hand so he doesn’t start without you 🙂So before going further with this, get something more stable under the teeter so there are not accidents 🙂
Then you can start to add more tip. All of these games come together eventually into the ‘finished product’ teeter performance.
>>When do I add a cue? And any good cue words?>
You can add the teeter word now. I personally use a teeter word and a target word. I agree about all the “T” words. What about ‘slide’ or ‘slam’ or ‘seesaw’? Or ‘hit it’ maybe?
>>You’ll also see a cameo appearance by my Eli, 1 month shy of 14 years old. He’s physically very well but is in the clutches of canine dementia and is declining.>>
Awwwww Eli!! What a good boy <3 There are some meds now that can help with the cognitive decline for our oldsters!!!
>>Lastly, I left yesterday for a two week vacation to ALASKA (woohoo so excited!!) so wont be doing any training obviously.>>
WOW!!!! I am sure you will enjoy every moment!!!
>>t are there any plans for moving onwards with these MaxPup dogs? >>
Yes – I think a ‘transition to trials’ for our teenage dogs will be on tap, probably late September. I will keep you posted!!
Enjoy your trip!!!
TracyAwesome! So for the next session, do the pattern game from this lesson between every rep:
So it would be tunnel – wing – toy – toss a treat, she engages, toss a treat, she engages, toss a treat, she engages – tunnel -wing -toy and so on 🙂
The purpose is to help her modulate her arousal in between reps. From what I could see, her arousal got a little past optimal, so she had a zoomie. If we can begin teaching her how to regulate herself (and teaching us how to help her :)) then she won’t have zoomies 🙂
Zoomies are not a choice and they are usually not a fun thing for the dog – they are just an arousal response from the amygdala (and puppies are driven by their amygdala LOL!!)Let me know if that makes sense! Definitely get it on video 🙂 I will get you hooked up with the webinars 🙂
Tracy
Hi!
Caper was fabulous in the live class (and so were you, and so was the cat LOL!!!!!) Big thanks to Brad for his course building and video’ing help!!! I am glad she is getting back to normal. Does the vet think a spay might be helpful?>>Will you be posting the recordings from the last live session into the forum?>>
The recordings are all posted here:
She has such strong commitment to the wing that she needs the smaller lap turn cue to be what I call “louder” in the environment (a bigger, more salient picture compared to the wing). The way to do that is to extend your arm to her more, so your magic cookie hand is at her nose level – you were already a bit bent over, so feel free to bend over more.
She did REALLY well when you shook your hand a bit (ok, a lot haha). And she also did well when you called her. So looking at the very last rep for example, you were calling her, your hand was lower than at other points in the session, and you were shaking the hand. So she was able to respond! Yay! And once you got her locked onto your hand, the rest was great!
So definitely keep going with what you did there. 3 small tweaks to make it easier:
– call her before she goes into the tunnel (you were calling urgently which was great, but it was after she was in the tunnel) and of course keep calling her 🙂 We will be switching it to a threadle wrap verbal soon, but for now the name call is good
– when she starts coming towards you when you call her, shift your connect down to your hand so that she sees you looking at it (and yes, keep shaking it LOL!). That will draw her right in.
– move the wings further from the tunnel, 18-20 feet at least. You can use your tunnel sends to get her into the tunnel so you can be in position for the lap turn when she exits. The extra room will give her more time to process the cue and find your hand before locking onto the wing.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
>>I haven’t done as much practice as I would have liked, hot, hot, hot, but it cooled down a bit the last couple of days,>>
Yes, the last few days have been better here too – I am hoping that we are done with the high heat! (I am an optimist LOL!!!)
>>Thanks for the tip about the pattern games. It’s amazing how something so simple can be so effective. I>>
Yes – they are VERY cool!! And it really helps my dogs be relaxed but also super focused in new places.
>>I still don’t have a class to go to, BUT, I got into a Dudley Shumate one day seminar for young dogs at the end of September, >>
Super!!! Dudley is a blast, I think you will really enjoy the seminar!!! And fingers crossed that Estelle can get you in after the heat goes away. Georgie is definitely ready to take her skills on the road!
The video looks great – I notice she I flowing through the sequences very well and is vocalizing less!!!
Good job getting the verbals in before she got into the tunnel on most of the reps! She finds the soft turns to the left/right very natural, so those looked good! Be sure to also show her the handling to match the verbal – when you say the verbal before she goes into the tunnel, you can also peel away to the left/right wing so the verbal and physical cue support each other.
The Go is a little less natural for her, so the more you let her see your acceleration on the straight line, the better she did! Great job getting the toy thrown out ahead to help her keep driving straight
>>Rear crosses tricky, of course. >>
Yes! RCs on tunnels are especially tricky!!!
On the first one to the right, you didn’t show the info til after she was in the tunnel. You were earlier at 1:17 and 1:35 (she saw the RC pressure and you cutting behind her before she went in) and read them well!
At 1:26, you didn’t quite point your feet or motion to the tunnel, so she went in but came out (she was not sure if you wanted it or not – nice said tunnel but feet/motion did not :))
The next rep (1:35) had motion to the tunnel and she did great!
The left turn RCs were harder for you 🙂 so remember to move forward to the tunnel so that she gets the commitment cue, and at the same time you will be putting pressure on her line – think of it as running to the center of the tunnel entry as she is passing you 🙂
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! Thanks for the compilation!!!!
First of all – he is looking fabulous! Fast, focused, doing ALL GOOD BOY THINGS. And that allows you to get some awesome handling in – lots of blinds, aggressive handling, etc.
>> I think that open jumpers is just a particularly awkward class to be in. It’s not really a level we train at. Although there is one USDAA run here. I do feel like my handling in practice and in trials doesn’t look the same and contributed.>>
Yeah, Open is awkward. And it was so funny to hear the difference between AKC and UKI (music blaring LOL!!)
Anyway – yes, I see what you mean by the big lines and extra tunnels. There is a common theme: he is going fast, you are not ahead like you might be in training, it is a relatively soft turn… and the verbal cue does not override the physical cue. The verbal (like the left-poles at :24) was in conjunction with you driving forward for longer than needed, so the physical cue said “go straight!”. Similar things happened at 1:24 and 2:40. Part of that is lack of practice at high speed on big courses (he is still early in his career and this speed is niiiiiice!!) and also I think in those moments, he needs bigger “louder” physical cues.
Those bigger physical cues can be brake arms (opposite arm coming up to get the soft turns) or even a spin. Both of those can really be salient and helpful. Do you have a trial this weekend?
And, I owe ya, this gives me much better ideas for next week’s live class (I was having a little trouble coming up with anything good and fun :)) Stay tuned for sequences that will simulate this in a smaller area!
Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
Have fun at B&D!! It is only 7 hours away, I wish I could have come!!
>>When does the course end, please? I can never seem to find stuff – in life in general and here.
We have one last set of games posted next Wednesday (Aug 9) then 2 weeks after that til the last posting day in the Forum (Aug 23rd :))
Have fun!
TracyOUCH! Sorry to hear that. Thanks for letting me know! For the tandems, you can make it more of a shoulder pull-send so you don’t need as much arm movement! And the lap turns are less important, we use them for concept work but don’t see them a lot on course nowadays…
Hi!
Nice work here – we got good info about what she reads and what she needs help with:>Same issues not wanting to turn to the tunnel when she can see the next jump. This was inconsistent and I wasnt quite sure what I was doing different or whether she was just picking random.>>
Nope, not random! When you are rotating to help her and past the tunnel entry? She commits. But if you are not past the tunnel entry, or running forwards – she stays out on a parallel line to you and either takes the jump or runs past the tunnel entry.
So that is a dog training element, not a handling element: we don’t want you to have to run backwards or be rotated to get her to commit (because you can’t get where you need to be if you have to run backwards or rotate), so rather than trying the sequence, you can work on being able to move forwards:
– you can repeat the cue (tunnel tunnel tunnel) and give her a serp arm to help her, and just walk forward to start – then reward her for taking the tunnel without you having to rotate your feet or run backwards. Then when she is successful, you can add more and more speed to go from walking forward, to jogging forward, to running forward.
The same goes for the backside at jump 5:
Part of the goal of these drills is to see how early you can send her and leave for the next line to get the backside at 7 – on the first time at 5, you helped her with rotating and cuing the backside at :23 but then you were too far behind to get the backside at 7. But when you tried to leave 5 sooner and NOT rotate at :43… she didn’t take the 5 jump, she ran past it like she ran past the tunnel entry earlier in the sequence (but you were in a great position to get 7!).
So you can make a similar training plan of walking while you cue and leave, and then throw a reward to the landing side of 5. Then build up to jogging and running over the course of several sessions.>>if I solve this in terms of what she needs or is thinking then magic will happen.
>> Think need to look at providing more clarity on this especially when I am close (not close by many standards) apart from verbal.I think if you can keep moving forward and not rotate or move backwards to manage the turns, then yes- magic! And you will be in a better position to add clarity, like you were at :46.
>>Many of mistakes- misses jumps etc I ignored and kept her in motion.>>
Yes – keep moving but keep moving on the sequence (or any sequence, even if you make something up) then reward her – if you are trying to swing her back around to try again, things become unclear about what you want and she gets frustrated. That causes more errors of getting on random lines or going past stuff, or biting:
This happened at :30 when you said oops and tried to do it again, she ended up getting on a big line. Also, I was not really clear what you wanted from 1:16 to 1:36, and neither was she so even though you kept moving, she got frustrated and came in to bite you at 1:36 . So if there is an error, keep going with the sequence and fix the error later. And if the error makes the actual sequence impossible, you can just carry on, finding a big line like it was the sequence 🙂 then reward. This does involve a lot of thinking on your feet in the moment, but that is a great skill on course!
Nice work! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
This is a good brain dump! Really great insights!!!!>>Listened to Monday’s Zoom on my drive to AK9C for a 4 hour workshop with Daisy Peel – definitely a potentially stressful situation…have never worked with Daisy, want her to like my dog, want to be able to keep my brain together, afraid we might be overfaced with the subject matter, concerned that because I don’t have a BC or a Sheltie….. there were probably a couple of others. >>
Glad you can listen while driving! And yes, I agree, that can be a stressful situation!
>>The agility training was great….didn’t hurt to relieve my “stress” that on the first sequence there was a big loop of 3 jumps to a tunnel where you layered a set of poles and Sly did it like he’d been doing it his whole life!! Thank you CAMP!! And I got a compliment on a fairly tricky blind 🙂 Certainly helped me “start” at a good place.>>
Yessssss!!!!! Hooray!!!!
>> I just smiled and walked away from a conversation that went into the “she said she was going to set a timer and she’s not doing that” by saying I’d had too much coffee and needed to go pee.>>
Click treat for you! It can really ruin your mindset to get caught up in those conversations. And that whole thing timer thing can be brought up directly to the instructor. But is there such as thing as too much coffee (yes, turns out there is such a thing as too much coffee haha!)
>> But as I left the conversation, I talked to myself about did I get what I wanted/needed from the seminar so far and it was a yes….. metal note it’s not about the time you get it’s about the quality of the time!!!>>
Brilliant!!!!!!! And also, that can be a mantra: It is about QUALITY of time, not QUANTITY of time.
>> Great idea, didn’t work that well though as 3 other people, one of them the chatty friend came down and decided to crate in that area as well, actually all 3 of them chatters and friends. Can’t remember who Daisy was working with but they were discussing training basics – placement of reward, reward markers, consistency…… da, da, da, da . Just before Daisy starts talking with this person, I got into a conversation about really cute dog fabrics for making toys with “the chatter friend”….. and I just couldn’t figure out how to get out of it so I’m trying to hear what Daisy is saying and not offending the person who’s flipping through pictures of fabric on her phone..>>
Yes, this is a hard scenario and I recommend being very direct: Smile and say “Oh wait, we need to pause this, I really need to hear what Daisy is saying, this is stuff I need, I will be right back” – then walk away. Simple, honest, direct.
And if you feel like you have offended the person, then you can come back later at lunch or something and give a simple apology: “sorry that Iwas so direct, but I really needed that info and didn’t want to miss it”. If they are offended? well… not much you can do that that point. And it is important to stop worrying if you offended someone because you chose to participate in the event you were all there for.
> In our walk through I really focused on all the aspects of my handling for the rear, even visualized where I was when I saw Sly drive ahead, enter, make the 2nd turn and I fell in behind him – and we got it!!! Yeah!!!
Super!!!!!
>> But with the leadout – I did the same planning but as I was setting Sly up on line, my last words to Daisy were “this is a really hard one for us” and I lead out like I was walking on egg shells and of course Sly got up and wandered a bit – that’s his way of saying “who the hell is this person and what did you do with my Mama”. Daisy was great and said “you know it’s near the end of the day, he’s done so well, can you do this without a leadout?” and the answer was “Hell yeah” – Sly was slightly hesitant with his sit (another sign that he’s a little concerned”, but with only a couple of steps leadout he came off the line nicely and we worked the rest of the sequence and he was able to play and tug. Huge mental win for him!!!>>
That is great! Yes, you can recognize something in training as being hard, and then reframe it: I am going to attack it like it is easy (also known as fake it til ya make it, which does have some scientific support LOL!!!)
And also – seminars are designed to present challenges that we might fail on, and take home to train. Sounds like Daisy had some really good ones, like the weave/jump discriminations 🙂 So my mindset at seminars is: be prepared to fail and learn, but keep rewarding the dog 🙂
>> Going to take some time to digest and think about yesterday in the context of the home work for moving forward – what my 3 go to tools are/were and what ones will be most beneficial moving forward in situations like yesterday.>>
Yes! The Go-to tools that work now, as well as the ones that resonate but need practice, and the ones to revisit later -those are big homework to help really develop mental strategies! And those tools will evolve. It is only recently that I have been able to be direct with people. It is not easy but it really helps and it also turns out that people are generally NOT offended (even when I think I have offended everyone – that is my inner critic LOL!)
>>Thanks as always and I love the idea of a Mental Management Transition to Trials Class>>
I will keep you posted!
>count us in and if you are looking for ideas for some 4 week winter skills workshops let me know and I’ll send you the map of the sequence that had the poles surrounded by jumps that we don’t have the skills to do. Daisy’s answer was “this is one of the reasons that verbals are becoming so important” and she did give me some ideas of how she’d go about working on that particular sequence.>>
Sure! She is 100% correct about verbals… they are incredibly important as these discriminations creep into all levels/flavors of agility 🙂
Tracy
Thanks for the zoomies video! Looks like she got stimulated and needed to a bit of decompression 🙂 You can add in letting her run around with the toy reward after every rep or two… that will help her balance the arousal.
BTW – we have an arousal webinar coming up. Would it be possible to use this zoomie video in exchange for a free ticket to it? And if you want, I can give you one of the games we would play to help her not have zoomies when working in high arousal and we can do a before and after, if you will be able to get to play with a tunnel soon 🙂 Let me know either way!
>>The initial price was $1,250,000 and it is now lowered to $950,000
On sale! LOL! I wish 🙂 Gorgeous property!!!
Tracy
Hi!
>> which also means it was before my second cuppa coffee…>>
That is crazy!! Ha!!
>>So here’s Tap and Landem turns, lol, since I see from my video that I hardly ever got myself in position to be fully facing toward OR away as she approached so they’re both pretty much the same body language with me more sideways facing the wing. Hrmph.>>
Ha! It is a Lapdem! I agree that this session was a big win, she did really well! we can make it easier for you to get rotated more for the lap turns, and make sure she has no questions on the tandems.
For the lap turns – yes, it is hard to get to t he wing and be rotated because she keeps finding new gears of speed. So, add some more distance – send to the tunnel more, both sending forward and more laterally, so it is easier to scoot over to the lap turn before she exits the tunnel.
She had a couple of questions about the tandem turn, ending up on the other side at 1:03 and 1:44 for example. What happened there was that you were trying to get to the wing, and ended up converging to it so your feet in those spots looked the same as the go-around cues, so the motion overrode the upper body.
The good news is that you don’t have to get to the wing for the tandem turns – you can face forward on a parallel line to the wing, give her the arm cues and a little shoulder pull away from it, and then turn her back to it. This will work even if you are not near it.
Since this is going really well, you can start considering your threadle wrap verbal (both the lap and tandem are threadle wraps). You can start to replace her name with the threadle wrap verbal!
Great job here 🙂
TracyHi!
I loved the team work here! Uphill for the cookie for Annalise… while you snuck in he target for the 2o2o. Lovely! Prytania was successful with both games! She did really well with the angled entries – she sometimes hooped over the bump but still lined up pretty straight.
There is significant noise, slam, and whip of the board (the end in the air vibrating behind her) and she seemed 100% confident and happy! YAY!!! So you can keep playing this game, gradually adding more and more tip, bit by bit.Do you hve access to tables? Another game is to put the teeter between 2 tables to have her run back and forth, then we gradually fade out the tables.
Nice work!
TracyHi!
So fun to be doing sequence work!! I saw you pop into the live class and I am glad you tried the sequences! LOTS of great stuff here and he did really well!Also, Bob is really fast. I am not sure if you noticed hahahahahaha but that means timing and line become really critical 🙂 He is looking super!! And thank you for leaving the oopsies in – those are the most useful parts!
>>Also, trying to be vocal but I feel
Like it may have caused the two bar drops. Not certain about that, but it feels
That way.>>The verbals did not cause the bar drops – it was late handling info 🙂 see below for specifics 🙂 but on the 2 bars down, you were actually silent so it is definitely not the verbals 🙂
Sequence 1, which was the BC 2-3
You did a great job sorting out the timing and connection! I think the most important thing here is that you don’t go close to the #2 jump at all – yes, commit him to it but also your motion should be all about heading to 3 before he makes a takeoff decision for 2! The key is that you don’t go past the wing of 2 (towards the bar of 2).
For the timing of the BC – your best timing was on the rep that started at :10. You started the BC as he landed from 1 so you were finished AND connected before he took off for (:12). SUPER!
On the first rep, you started the BC when he was taking off for 2 (:04) and didn’t get connection, so he didn’t see the side change. The other blinds were a little late too (as he was lifting off for 2) so the line was wider.
Looking at position: – on this sequence, you were tending to run past the wing of 2 towards the center of the bar at 2, which cued him to jump 2 on a slice and not towards 3.
When you moved to the throwback sequence, you started to be closer to 3 like at :31 and :41 and he read the line so much better!
So to get it really great: use the timing of starting the blind when he lands from 1 and great connection (:11) and the running line to 3 like at :31.
On the throwbacks – trying to run into it by releasing before you got past 2 made the throwback late, with a lot of running backwards 🙂 Your connection on the exit of the throwback was GREAT – he never looked at the tunnel that was right behind him! You can use a wrap verbal to help there too.
Ideally, you would lead out past 2 before you release him (closer to 3) so that when he is taking off for 2, you are already settled into position at 3 and you can do the throwback without running backwards or being late (being super late was why the bar came down at :32 – the rotation came just before takeoff, he tried really hard to make the adjustment, but just couldn’t get it done especially because he was not expecting a big collection at all).
On the throwback cue, when you look at the landing spot, he gets commitment really well! Note how when you looked at him at :53 he was not sure what to do, but when you looked at landing at :54, he committed. Yay!
>>On one of the oopses, he comes barreling out of that tunnel so fast and can easily run past it. Would use of a verbal help here? Me laying off to the left more?>>
The key will be to call him or give a directional before he enters the tunnel. You were either quiet the whole time (like at :57 when he blasted past the next jump), or called him after he was in the tunnel (1:06). So try to give the verbal (name or directional like a left cue, whichever applies best) when he is still 6 feet before entering the tunnel.
3rd sequence:
Nice timing and connection of the BC on the landing of 3 at 1;12! Yay! You can call before he enters (or use a left verbal) so he drives out more directly to 3.You had a bar down on jump 4 at 1:14 – he was wide on the tunnel exit (needs a verbal before entering) so you ended up being in his way: when he landed from 3, you were blocking the line to the takeoff spot (you were running to where the wing and bar meet) so you were in the way and he didn’t have time to organize the takeoff when he saw the bar. Much better running line at 1:30, where you did not block the wing! You can connect without rotating your feet back to him, that will help get you up the line even sooner.
I REALLY liked the FC on takeoff side of 3: you set a great line, super clear connection, and definitely not in the way at 4. This choice was the winner!
If the weather is decent, try these outside where you can add more distance and he can practice gripping on grass 🙂
>.Oh, and you asked in the last post about the Leslie exercises. Mostly grids – some slight curves – to help him use his rear legs. And pretty neat exercises to strengthen and creat awareness of said rear legs.>>
Awesome! Leslie is really amazing!!!
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
