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Hi!
Backing up onto the teeter went well! He was working REALLY HARD to find the board with his back feet! And he got better and better with accurately placing his back feet here. Good boy! Really nice!!!You can revisit this and see if he is even more accurate after sleeping on it 🙂 But more teeter games coming soon too!
Great job 🙂
Tracy
Hi!
This is going really well – it is a good stretch of his commitment for him to keep moving around the wings/barrel whisk you are doing only one step! But he did GREAT! And you seemed to get happier doing only one step more and more as the session went on! Super!He was barking a decent amount here – I am not sure if he normally barks a lot, but I think the barking here was more of a “why aren’t you RUNNING, human?!?” Haha! But your cues were nice and clear so he continued to drive forward to the line without asking questions.
If you revisit this, you can add even more distance 🙂 New games coming tomorrow!
Great job :)
Tracy
Hi!
The first part of the threadle wrap (the circle around at your side) went great! Then you added the u-turns: also lovely! Just keep your hand rally close to you and don’t turn him away til he is about 2 inches from it.
When you did that, he had nice tight turns! When your hand got too far away and moved too early, it was a wider nd less comfy turn.
You can emphasize the hand by letting him see you punch it down next to your leg and even shake it a little.
He had no trouble when he was moving, so now you can add your movement – you can be moving forward and showing your hand. Then be sure to decelerate as he arrives at your hand to set up the turn away.
Great job!
Tracy
Hi!
>In the past I have done this with treats in a container/cookie jar that I can use at trials. Is there a benefit in leaving the treats more open? I could see that as an additional challenge. >
It is a little harder in the early stages because the cookies are unprotected 🙂 but it is also quicker to deliver the reward. I can get the cookie to the pup quickly without having to open a container. Eventually, delayed reward can be even more delayed so containers are great!
>My marker is the word Cookies for this but I usually say it more like COOOOOKKKIEEEEEEEs. With a very excited tone. I noticed how calmly you say it. Do you see an issue with making it more excited?>
That is a fun marker! I was surprisingly calm here LOL but it is perfectly fine to be more excited as long as you say your Cookie marker first and foremost, rather than praise then the marker then more praise because we don’t want the marker to get lost in the sentence.
Have fun!
Tracy
Hi!
>He is talented or driven for sure LOL.>
Talented AND driven LOL! He was not going to sacrifice a cookie or miss the chance for another cookie 🙂
>I remember doing running contact work with Brighton and that mat that we started with a couple of cones next to the mat to keep him going onto it.>
Yes – you can use cones or little flags outside. And for now, since he is still growing, you can use a wider mat so it is easier to get all his feet on it.
>Dublin can do left and right turns next to me on both sides of me with hand signal and verbal. Should I still start with all of the same steps or do you want to see where he is at? I don’t think he will need to stay on the earlier steps too long.>
You can jump in and show where he is at, then we can move to the next steps really quickly! If he is happy to turn away, then you can warm up with that then immediately try the next level.
Keep me posted!
Tracy
Hi!
>When me & my adult dog were taught this it wasn’t broken down like this & maybe it’s different with an older dog?! Dunno. >
It was probably more that we just didn’t need the skill with your older dog, so when you learned it as the skill started appearing, you added it quickly with a lot of handler dependence? And now course design has added this skill everywhere and it needs to be independent… so we need to train it differently.
On the videos: she was happy to do 360s to the left!
On the right, when you got the middles…I bet the cue is very similar. When you cue a middle, do you use your right hand/right leg? I cue my middle with my left hand to my left leg – so any little flick of that hand means to get in the middle 🙂
So to help the dogs not confuse the cues: I use 2 hands with my threadle wraps. Now that Sunnie is able to turn away from you, you can use 2 hands on the cue: both hands are low and near her nose, and both turn her away together.
On the 2nd video: the left u-turns also looked good – lovely turns and no middles 🙂 And middles on the right turns – she does it when your hand flicks back behind you a bit, so I think it is the same as the cue for a middle. You can definitely add the 2nd hand, getting both hands low and locking her onto them before turning her away.
And when we add the verbal and put it into context, that will help her know if I not a middle cue 🙂
>Also, what should I do when she does go into Middle- reward or reset her some how without it becoming a reward? In my mind if I cued it – unintentionally- shouldn’t I reward her? >
I 10000% agree that if we unintentionally cue something and the pup is correct, we need to reward her. So figuring out what we did wrong then clarifying it will fix it 🙂 And if she gets an accidental middle, you can have a laugh then toss a cookie to reset, then make your turn away hands very obvious (you can even shake them a bit!) to come to your side on the next rep.
Great job here! Let me know how it goes!
Tracy
Hi!
He did really well with the layering! It was a hard layer because he could see both jumps pretty easily, but the ‘get out’ action really helped, along with your parallel line motion.
Something to consider in this day of jump versus jump discriminations: you can also use directionals for the tunnel exit (such as GO in this case), delivering it before he enters the tunnel so he exits straight. Or you can start the ‘out’ cue as long as he doesn’t think it is turning away on the tunnel exit 🙂
And definitely don’t call his name, as that can turn him to the wrong jump (I am not sure you realized you had called him :))The backside cues went well! Yes, there was a little bit of converging motion but he still had plenty of opportunity to take the front of the jump 🙂 You can keep moving yourself further and further over on the line, so you eventually can get the backside with you nearer to the exit wing. You were near the center of the bar on a lot of these which is a really good position! The outside arm seemed to really help emphasize the connection. You can start it even sooner: when he is in the air over the previous jump, you can start the verbal/connection/arm for his push on the next jump.
Great job!
Tracy
Hi!
The wingin’ it session was really interesting! She was totally correct for almost all of it, but she had a question on the soft turn from wing to wing every time (looked at you). Your connection, motion, etc were all good, so my guess is that she is just super used to wrapping wings and the soft turns were weirder.
But then on the 2nd to last rep, you had a tiny disconnect (shoulder forward so connection broke) and she didn’t take the wing. With that rep being wrong, it was clarifying for her so she had zero questions on that last rep! Sometimes an error is very helpful 🙂She was very good at reading you in the lazy game!
>For the lazy game, there were a few times when she would cut the middle jump. Am I moving too quickly away from her or just not supporting the jump?>
What happened there (like at :14 on the video) was that your arm was pointing to the middle jump but your feet and shoulders had turned to the next jump, so she went with feet & shoulders. Compare that to the successful reps where you faced the middle jump as she was exiting tue previous jump, so she took it every time (feet and shoulders supported it). So using less arm cue and more connection will help your feet & shoulders find show the line.
She did great with the plank on the angle! Maybe when it was too flat, it didn’t appear to be something to interact with. She seemed very confident here! You can also get a longer plank and put blocks under it so it is a foot off the ground, and have her hop on and off in the middle – i like to teach young dogs to get off the DW if they lose their balance.
Great job here!
Tracy
That’s so funny that watching Benni gets him pumped up for the wobble board! Dogs are definitely competitive!
He did great with the teeter games. Slamming it was easy, so it was good to shift to backing up. You can now add being more patient to let him immediately get all 4 feet on when he backs up. We will be adding more soon!
The wobbly plank was perfect! He really had to work his balance in the position changes and running across it was easy. If possible, get him on as many different planks and teeter bottoms as possible now, in different places 🙂
Great job!
Tracy
Good morning!
The one steps sends looked great – she is committing really well! Nice job with your verbals here too. Look at her speed, commitment and tight turn on that 2nd to last rep: PERFECT! She had a small question on the last rep – it was the only rep where you did not make connection as she exited the tunnel, so she checked in with you. Definitely keep that connection there.
2nd video – She did well here too! You can start your turns a step sooner on that middle jump. Since she is committed well, you can start the FC when he is halfway between the 2 wings for now. Also, you can keep the toy in your pocket for now. She is moving really fast and you had some hand switching with the toy which delays cues. Since we don’t need a precision reward here, you can keep the toy in a pocket and whip it out at the end.
I will translate what she was saying when she got BIG MAD at 1:33. She said that you were not connected, she was correct, and you should not have stopped 🙂 She is right 🙂 She gives excellent feedback LOL! So keep going and reward the next thing, because stopping and withdrawing the toy reads as a punishment for her being wrong. For the sends, use a little less arm swooshing and more eye contact, then it should be very smooth and easy 🙂
She did well slamming the teeter here. You were waiting her to get into a 4on position – is that your desired end position for the teeter? I like 2o2o for the big dogs better because it is clearer for the dogs, easier to maintain, faster, and promotes a good weight shift 🙂
She did super well on the plank! Running across it was easy and fun 🙂 And she thought really hard about keeping all her feet on while turning around. SUPER! I think she and her sister have the same homework here: let’s elevate the plank more so that there is a little more challenge to get on it and turn around. Are there blocks that you can use so the plank is less than a foot off the ground but still stable so it doesn’t move from under them?
Great job here!!!
Tracy
Good morning!
This was a great rocking horse session outside! The cool weather definitely helps! I think he is showing us a slight left turn preference here – whenever he has a question, he offers something about the left turn 🙂 There were 2 moments where you were cueing a right turn where he wanted to offer a left turn:
At :14, he went almost to the barrel then checked in… and when you went to reset he took that as a backwards send to the left turn 🙂
And when you were not quite connected at :28 and sent a little too soon, he wanted to go do a left turn on the other barrel 🙂 You re-sent him and he did get it, good boy! But he doesn’t need that big connection for the left turn reps, so for the right turns you can be sure to help him out with more connection and staying a little closer to the barrel for now.
I think he is understanding the parallel path concept really well so far – towards the end he was driving ahead of you nicely!! The next steps are to add more distance, but getting the technical details sorted out will make that all easier:
>Would it be acceptable to use a wingless jump that has a bar as a cross-brace between the 2 uprights that sits on the ground?>
I think it would work! The cross-brace is a good visual kind of like a jump bar but he doesn’t really have to jump it, if I am visualizing it correctly.
You can also put weights on the feet of the wings here so they don’t fall over. I stuff sand into old socks to use as jump weights. I used to live in the mountains where the wings would get blown over all the time and the sand socks were lifesavers 🙂
>I tried showing him the lotus ball but he did not like having to work for his treat! DIVA!>
Ha! I can see his argument though – lotus balls work best for dogs with long pointy noses (like Shelties) that can shove their nose in and open the ball up. He would have to shove his face and eyeballs in. So what if we did a treat hugger? He can just pluck the treat out of it. Or does he like Kong toys? You can put a little tiny bit of cream cheese in it and he can lick it out – plus Kongs are easy to throw and very visible.
He was HILARIOUS at the beginning of the running contact box session: stared at it, calculated… then threw himself into it. I almost snorted coffee out of my nose. Then it was game on, no questions.
Since he did great, you can shift to the next level: use a ‘get it’ marker and throw the rewards rather than reward in the box. That way we get him moving back and forth through it.
Great job here!
Tracy
Hello!
>And I realised I need to do some nice backwards and forwards pattern games BEFORE I train in hard environments.>
Yes! The mental warm up is critical for the dogs so the pattern games are super helpful to bring him to new environments. And it also tells you if he is having a hard time processing the environment or not, based on how quickly he can engage.
>I also thought that o need to start my “warm-up” sequence, making that part of the training routine. (Not that barry has all the warm-up tricks yet but should start now)>Yes to this too! A couple of tricks after the pattern game are great for the mental warm up and engagement.
These will be adding time to the session and can also tire the brain out… so definitely do them and the training session that follows them should be short! Less than 10 quick reps, then take a break.
And of course, you can just do the mental warm ups as the session itself, then take a break. The more we get into the habit of doing this, the easier it is to bring the pups into new environments and get engagement quickly.
>Baby Barry is definitely struggling more than he did before he got hit with adolescence stick.>
It might indeed be a bit of adolescence, but it might also be that the games are getting harder while the environment is also really hard.
One thing to consider is when using a hard location, then game should be easy 🙂 That creates a nice balance of success: when something is hard, everything else should be easy. I also like games that have a lot of movement for the dogs – it helps them have fun and stay engaged.
The strike a pose game with the MM on the ground was a bit hard so having it get easier with the mat for the treat and you being stationary at the end was the best way to break it down. That is where he was very successful and you can easily reset if there was a blooper. That part of the session went on for over 2 minutes and he lost engagement by the end – lots of brain juice is used in hard environments so a very short session is definitely useful.
Earlier in the strike a pose session, he came in tugging really well (yay!) but then moving directly into the stay and ignoring the environment/Manners Minder etc was really hard – plus if the info was unclear and he didn’t get rewarded, he lost a bit of focus and that is when he took off.
For the out game – he did best when your outside arm pointed more to the prop. He nailed those reps! Yay! And letting him run with the toy was a nice way to balance out the ‘control’ of the stays and the lead changes. He had an error when you did the balance rep… but he had just done a ton of get outs so I can see why he went to the prop. So mix in the balance reps sooner in the session so he doesn’t think it is all about the prop.
By the end, the cues were less clear so he was not having as much success… definitely set that timer so you can be done in about 2 minutes before you both get brain tired 🙂
Nice job here! Let me know how he does adding the mental warm ups!
Tracy
Good morning! He is really looking fast and fun – you are going. to have a blast running courses with him!
The parallel path is going really well! He was finding the jump brilliantly and going faster and faster. Yay!
Two things you can add to this – throw the reward sooner (mark and throw when you see him lock onto the jump but before he gets to the jump) . And use your ‘get it’ marker so he knows to look forward and not at you.
You can definitely keep adding lateral distance, as well as sometimes staying close to him so he drives ahead of you (which makes rear crosses even easier :))
Backing up is going really well! He is definitely adding more steps and getting the idea – it is a hard skill for sure.
You can add two things to this now too: a slightly higher back-up-destination so he has to step up onto it. I think something that is 2 or 3 inches tall will be perfect, because it gives him something to step up onto. And, keep adding distance!He seemed to be very engaged with figuring out the stays! And that is what we want: a pup that LOVES learning to stay 🙂 He was holding it for a couple of steps, so you can keep ping-ponging the number of steps you take as you move away. Sometimes reward him immediately, sometimes get 3 steps, sometimes 1 steps, sometimes 2 steps and so on. Pretty soon he will just hold the stay for a zillion steps 🙂
Great job!
Tracy
Good morning!
You made great time getting home! Feels like a month flew by! I bet you are glad to be out of all of that bad weather.This was a really nice session of backing up to get him back into the groove of your training sessions. He was backing up brilliantly on the flat! When the board was a little less angled at the beginning, he was also easily able to step back onto it. His form changed when the board got higher – it was harder to get his back feet all the way up. It also shifts a lot of weight into his shoulders at that height, which we should avoid at this stage (shoulders are delicate flowers LOL!) So you can keep the board lower but add challenge by giving him something low to step over on the way to the board. What are the guide poles made of? They are the right size to have him step over, if you have more of them.
Great job!
Tracy
Good morning!
>It was going really well, until it wasn’t ;). A couple came through the confined area we were in and rode their motorized scooters within about 2 feet of us. Absolutely their right, but Macklynn flipped out. It took us a while to reset, calm down, and get a few positive reps in before leaving.>
Yikes, that sounds so hard! I think MOST dogs would have had a BIG struggle with that. All of my adolescent dogs would have freaked out too – surprise and noise and weird moving things. Poor Macklynn!!! I am glad she was able to reset.
The get out game went really well! She was really good about going to it on cue and NOT going to it when you didn’t cue it. The balance reps were really funny because while she didn’t change her lead to go to the prop, she definitely did look at you like you had forgotten to tell her to go to it LOL!!
On the reps where she was cued to get out, she did really well with changing her lead and you were good about maintaining the criteria of hitting the prop. Super!
The shpile was great – the pile itself was had all sorts of different stuff and was a bit unstable. Perfect! It had enough challenge that she had to think about getting her hind end on without being too hard.
She did well staying coordinated and offering behavior, even with the added arousal of all the toy play breaks. SUPER!!! And I love love love when a Border Collie can eat treats and play tug in the same session. That can be a challenge for a lot of BCs and she is great with it! For future shpile games, you can keep switching up the pile and adding more things that move.
Yay for backing up! Definite progress here!! You have been working it in small increments and that really shows – she is doing really well! The good reps (there were plenty of good reps!) had lovely form so you can keep gradually moving away from the mat to add more distance while maintaining the form.
>I may need to bungee my hands to my sides so I stop accidentally asking for a ‘sit’ >
Ha! Yes – I think keeping your hands by your knees will keep her from looking up. And when she looks up, it shifts her weight into her rear more, which stops the movement and produces the sit. You can lean over to keep your hands there, or sit on something 🙂
The rocking horse game went great! I think both of you like getting to move more! During the in-between moments after a reward and before the next rep, I think she didn’t know what to do with herself so she was pacing around a bit. You can ask her to line up at your side (a cookie will work for that) so you can have a clean smooth start. Nice job fixing the little connection bloopers – when you were not quite connected, she ended up on the wrong side of the barrel. And she really loved the ‘turn and burn’ exits where you ran away with the toy!
>Very slowly adding distance on this – I initially added a bit too much and she didn’t want to play.>
Yes, keep adding distance. She was happy to play here, so if she turns off for some reason, add more connection and you can also add more motion of running towards the barrels a bit – I think that will be fun for you both!
Great job here!
Tracy
