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Good morning!
Baby Spamilton is doing really well here!!! I think the key to getting more success and answering his questions will be to have you moving more:
Try to be moving both on the sending to the tunnel (take a few steps towards it til he is locked onto it) and on the threadle moments: when he is in the tunnel, go meet him close to the exit and be doing the threadle arm & verbal as you are moving to the entry. That should help support him and answer his questions 🙂
When you were standing still, he was not sure of what to do especially on the harder side. And on the threadles, try not to rotate towards him at all: have your feet turned to the line to the entry and you can be in motion, rather than facing him and stationary. When you were faience him and stationary, he was not sure if he was supposed to come to you and he ended up waiting for the hand cue to send him back out.
So, if you are moving, he will be able to see it and hear the verbal, and send himself which is exactly what we want 🙂 I don’t think he was watching the toy too much – he was watching the momma because you were standing still too much LOL!!!
Great job here! Let me know how he does with motion!!!
Tracy
You can keep the actual target for now (even if she doesn’t fully touch it, we can fade out the actual touching) – it is a great visual for her and you will feel it in your hand, which will help you look at it too 🙂
Good morning!
>>It was a feat of mindset this time around; he was doing horribly on the first day!>>
That makes it even more exciting! Bouncing back shows a lot of resilience in your mental game!!! And I am so relieved the shoulder injury is healed. When/where is nationals this year?
I need to give you a big click/treat for doing all of these games very progressively with her and not rushing or skipping steps. Because she is so fast, super fun, and very driven for the sport, it would be sooooo easy to do too much or skip steps! But no one wants to have to retrain and we definitely don’t want any frustration, so keep going with this ‘small steps’ approach – the future is VERY bright!
The lazy game is pretty easy for her 🙂 Yay! The distance was easy too! When she is moving at that speed (which might be happening all the time haha) try to throw a reward rather than drop it, so she can fly through it and scoop it up, rather than twist on her shoulders to get it. I highly recommend a really big hollee roller for that 🙂
The only trouble she had was on the left turns, she went around the 3rd jump a few times. No worries, she got it by the end, but it might come up again when we start you running 🙂 So when we add your motion, go from walking to a jog before running for real on the left turns, to help her find the lines without the distraction of motion. You can probably add in running sooner on the right turns, but she will let us know 🙂
You can put up the distance now to 18 feet, then 21. She seems ready for that!
And, speaking of adding motion – she is ready for you to add more motion (the Lazy Games Part 2 and 3 from the live class should be the perfect next step for her).
The one step sends looked great! She is definitely self-propelled with is really going to work out SUPER nicely on full courses!!!! You can definitely add more handling on this and the next steps of the game (which involve you running and the FC back to the tunnel after the 2nd wing). This is a good game to add as much of your motion as you possibly can: can she process her lines and turns while you are hauling *ss? It is a good challenge!! Can you stay connected, run the right direction, say the correct verbals, while you are hauling *ss? Also a god challenge LOL! And there are no bars to keep up, so it is a great way to get the processing going at super high speed.
One more thought:
More tunnel bags are needed now, and stretch the tunnel fully out so there are no curves in the middle. She is going really fast, so we need the tunnel to support that so she doesn’t fall.Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
>>I am seeing a lot of you lately! Lucky me.>>
Lucky ME!! It is going to be a busy and fun summer!!!
Her games are going really well!
The first lazy game looked good! She did well finding her jumps and got faster and faster! Adding distance seemed to be pretty easy for her, maybe easier than when it was close together! She is very quick to find the tossed cookie, so you can keep moving the whole time. That will help her look for the jumps and not at you when you have stopped. You can keep adding distance to this so she goes out and finds lines without you needing to run much 🙂
The plank game is also looking strong, she seems very happy to go back and forth on it even when you added movement. She jumps off the side a little after you toss the treat – that is fine, so you can help her stay on the board longer by throwing the treat later 🙂
Time to elevate the plank! A few low, stable things to lift it a couple of inches off the ground should work perfectly.
The fast moving lazy game looked great at the start of the 3rd video! Great commitment!
She had a couple of questions on the jump after the tunnel. For now, she needs you to be closer and super connected to get commitment. So stay connected and closer to the line until you see her turn her head and look at it, then you can move away to the blind. That added support might make you a little later on the blind, but that is fine for now 🙂
At :14 she didn’t take the jump (looking at you) – I think it was mainly that you were too far from it. Compare your distance from it here (4 or 5 feet away, perhaps) to the distance away at :06 and :19 (2 feet away?). So being closer will help when you are going fast, and you can add more distance away from it laterally with the lazy game.
The 5-6-7-8 section of the fluffy blinds sequence started off well! Try to reward that before trying for more, so you can get rewards in for finding lines early and often 🙂
At :29 she ran past the jump because you were too far ahead and disconnected. Compare to the great position closer to the line and great connection at :39, where she found the jump easily. The same thing happened at 1:13 (too far away and not enough connection) so she came to you. Adding the extra connection will help, and you can totally throw the toy to the landing spot there to help pump up the value.
>>The BC are late & now I see she was looking at the toy in my hand>>
Yes, the BCs were a little late because we are generally a little late with baby dogs and that is fine 🙂 We have to support the previous line so getting the BC is harder. It will get easier as you work the line skills. And she actually was not looking at the toy – she was reading the handling well and when you were not connected & the toy was right in front of her, she probably thought she was supposed to look at it. So you can keep the toy in your hand and add more connection, and it will definitely get smoother and smoother 🙂
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
>>It’s raining buckets here today!
I am back in Virginia and it is like living in a rain forest LOL!!!! I think we have maybe 2 more days of this then things will calm down again.
Great job with the confidence boosting here, I love how he was getting on the teeter at the very first hint of the cue to start. Yay!
I think it will really help him if you have the treat loaded on the target at the end before he gets on the board, so he looks at the target at the end and doesn’t look at you. I think on some of the reps you were putting the treats in after he ran up the board. But on the last rep, you put a bunch of treats on the target before you released him to drive up the board – and he was fabulous! So definitely keep putting the treats on the target first. On all of the demos, my treats are already on the target before the dogs got on the board (which is a little hard to see, but they were there :))
>>Let me know what I should be doing next. Does the height matter? Should I gradually raise it and continue with sessions at a slightly higher tilt?>>
I think that the next step is to raise it as little as possible, so it is almost imperceptible to him (he will know it is higher, but won’t need to think much about it). We want him to get super happy being all the way up in the air, so you can raise it bit by bit over time, doing what you did here with lots of good cookies :) Great job!
TracyGood morning!
>>And it’s always interesting how different dogs learn and mature at different rates.>>
Yes! And it is fine to wait longer, because he will learn it faster when he is ready.
>>When I have to pick him up for anything else, I don’t… I kneel down and encourage him to jump on my shoulder.>>
This is a great way to do it! And I like your idea of turning into a ‘jump in my arms’ cue for the end of agility runs.
>>I definitely need to get something to put the treat on on the end of the teeter. So that he knows that is where the cookie is.>>
I have used a large spoon attached to the teeter with duct tape, with the spoon bent up a little so it is easy for the dog to get to at the end. Very fancy LOL! But it works!
He did well with the teeter here – he is adding more speed, so be ready for him to blast up the teeter LOL! There is even a little bit of teeter noise happening too.
When he was jumping off, it was on your other side (right side) which might seem like a small detail but totally makes a big difference in how he was moving and balancing. So each time you change sides, slow things down and help him (probably with a cookie in his face :)) to get up the board. And yes, having the cookie at the top will give him a great focal point to drive to.
>>(And when I looked out the window later, he was definitely up there on his own checking it out again! Oops!)>>
Alrighty then, the teeter goes into lockdown now LOL!!!!!
He did so well with the lazy game!!! YAY!! He looked like he was having fun, too!
I think finding the treats in the grass right have been the hardest part. You can use a small ball for this (if he likes balls and will bring it back for a cookie trade) .>>I did push him over a jump at one point then thought maybe I should not have, and let him just go around like I did on the first rep of each side.>>
It was fine to do, but you can also let his offer:
With the cookie tosses, while he is eating, you can keep moving so he doesn’t come to you when he is done chewing – he will look for a jump. I think he is ready for you to string together 2 or 3 in a row. And if that goes well, take a look at the games from the live class and start playing those :)
Great job!
TracyGood morning!
The lazy games part 2 and 3 are going well. She is figuring out the line really nicely without requiring a lot of motion from you.
I think having her mom barking in the background is really hard, in terms of processing – the brain has to devote a LOT of bandwidth to deal with being barked at and still process cues. Basically the barking activates the alar m in her brain, so then her brain has to actively try to de-prioritize that while also trying to follow you cues.
She was looking around bit and had some jump form questions (like a bit of rotation over the bars on the harder parts). It is a lot of pressure on a young dog learning new things, so you will probably see more engagement when she has a quiet environment 🙂She found the lines well here, so you can add in motion of your motion as you move around the sequence and also start the other sequences from the live class. For these, let’s emphasize going fast fast fast and see how fast we can get her going 🙂 I think she is ready to add in more speed!
The timing game is also going well – very nice connection from you! You can keep working on the feet-down window for timing: as soon as her feet land, give the next cue. You can also start to anticipate it: when she is over the bar, you can anticipate that landing moment and try to time the next cue with the instant her feet touch the ground 🙂 This is harder but also probably closer to the reality of what her timing needs will be on taller jump heights.
The plank work from the angles went well – it was REALLY cool to see her work her body by getting on and balancing, while adding speed as you added speed. I love this! She seemed to have no questions here, so you can leave this until we build on it later in the class 🙂
>>She’s not fast but she jumps 20″ well. Nancy says she’s a nice jumper. Yeah, part of it is probably my dragging my feet to 24″ since it is a hard jump height. I put her to 12″ for the lazy game. It was at 10″. >>
At this stage, because she is really maturing nicely – let’s focus on getting more speed 🙂 Part of that is leaving the jumps low so she can feel the joy of running fast (low jumps make it easy to do that, it is much harder to run fast on 20 and 24 inch jumps). Also you can do the handling work here at 12 or 16, with lots of thrown rewards or chase-da-momma rewards so she gets to run run run (and in a quiet space, so her brain doesn’t have to process the barking). When she starts to really extend, then we can inch the bar up.
>>I’ll do some grids to work her up to 24″ in the mean time.>>
Hold off on that for now – grids ask the dogs to move more methodically, and we want her to move with a little more wind-in-her-hair movement for now 🙂
Great job on these! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
Everything you write here is wonderful! A BIG set of wins!!!!
>> I got an invite for the seminar, but not part of the group of friends that were there. I started down that path of ‘I don’t fit in here’ ‘I’m too old’ ‘these guys exclude me’ ‘I can’t do this’>>
This is an interesting example of the human’s brain negative bias: you were invited to join a group for a special event, but your brain still found ways to negatively tell you those things. The brain is fascinating!!
One thing that might help with that is, when you take those thoughts to court, ask yourself what might be underneath those thoughts. When I ask myself that question and really think about it, it always comes back to fear & anxiety. That is good to know, but then we can treat ourselves with the same empathy and compassion that we would treat others with in the same situation.
>>So I just said STOP it!
LOVE it!! Sometimes we just need to tell our brains to STOP for a moment.
>>And reviewed the things I can’t change
My age
My deafness
my personality of an introvert (I love being at seminars, trials visiting, exchanging ideas, but at the end of the day, I am desperate to get away to my RV or motel. I actually can’t breath until I do!)
What other people think>>These are great! And yes, it is great to want to go back to your private spot to rest and recharge.
>>What I can control
my diet & exercise
paying close attention to what people are saying
my attitude & demeanor>>Yes, these are spot on. Note about what people are saying: yes to listening and paying attention to an instructor or helpful people, but feel free to ignore people who are NOT being helpful 🙂
>> So I did & had one of the best 24 obstacle sequences of my life. >>
This is sooooo awesome! Happy dance!! It is amazing how getting our brains to cooperate helps our bodies nail these skills 🙂
>>Granted, we had broken it down & worked pieces of it first, but still. >>
Another way to look at it – you had already had work sessions so you and Hoke might have been tired… but you still nailed it. YAY!!!
>>AND that focus let me see when he was headed to the wrong side of a jump AND we were able to correct it with a VERBAL. AND, when I stumbled in the grass, I was able to amend handling on the last three obstacles to a rear instead of a blind.>>
I think these are great examples of the ‘quiet mind’ we talked about on Monday. Your mind was not occupied with all sorts of distractions, so you could easily stay connected and focused to continue to handle even when things were not perfect. This is SUPER!
Thank you for sharing this – it is truly wonderful!!!
Tracy
Hi!
>>I was not really sure how this game should look.
It should look exactly like it did here: she gets really engaged, looks excited, responds fast – but doesn’t lose her mind or get over-stimulated. She was great!
And plus there is the ‘under the hood’ element of us deliberately activated more of her HPA Axis activity and then helping her return to baseline – this is a major resilience game and soooooo helpful when the dogs can self-regulate!
Arousal management with toys: I agree, it looked like her arousal state was better with the toys!
Actually, toy play is GREAT for this because it does get the pups into the higher arousal state more so than food – she was definitely more aroused here! And she looked pretty optimal in her arousal state – very engaged, quick to respond!And after a session like this, you can practice returning to baseline (resilience!) by scattering some treats around (in the. Grass would be GREAT!) and letting her sniff for a minute or so. You might not see a change in her behavior but there is definitely a change going on in her physiology!
She was pretty aroused with the treats although some of it might have been leftover from the toy session 🙂 A way to get her more stimulated with the treats is to ask for a trick then run a few steps with the treat before giving it to her, so she chases you – that is very simulating! And then you can help her self-regulate at the end by scattering treats in the grass 🙂
About which tricks to use: keep experimenting with different tricks and different situations – ideally, you will have a mix if more stationary tricks like shake, and moving tricks like leg weaves, spins, etc. Over time and with experimenting, you will know which tricks help her get into a higher arousal state, in a variety of situations.
Great job!
TracyHi!
She is definitely getting the idea of the backside slices! And she is definitely a righty 🙂 She does fat better on your left side so she can turn to the right, and when she is not sure, she offers a right turn (clever!) On the right turn side, you were able to get halfway across the bar!! Wow!>>I forget what cue you give for this, but did not use a verbal cue yet for this. >>
I use “back back back’ for this 🙂
One tweak will make both sides easier, especially when she is on your right & turning left:
Be sure that you are moving before she moves, rather than moving at the same time as she starts moving. Having you move before she moves will allow you to show motion and set the line for her with motion (and the other cues you were doing like connection and arm position, those looked good!). When you moved at the same time as her, you couldn’t set the line so she had to sort it out. That was fine on her stronger side but much harder on her weaker side.
So you can use the stay but you need to lead out, be walking 2 or 3 steps ahead of her then release and begins the cues. That should make it much easier.
>>She was much better for this than I had expected. Latent learning?>>
Probably! Latent learning is very cool!!!!
Get out: this went well too! As with the backside slice game, be moving before she starts to move, so you can show the cue with motion and from ahead.
And yes, the treats falling into the cracks in the deck are a pain LOL! You can put a manners minder straight out ahead of her (past the prop), so you can click it for going to the out, or for coming to you. That will make it more challenging for sure but will also take care of the lost treat issue LOL!>>I feel like we should always end on a good note, but when I see her mind getting fatigues, I think it is probably better just to end at that time.
Try to set a timer to send the session before you see any fatigue, because that is when mechanics get sloppier – and we don’t want to consolidate the memory of what she learned with the mechanics not being in place. A one minute session should generally be fine, with both of you wanting more 🙂
>>On the first time I stopped when I threw the treat, but thought that looked a bit weird. Later I moved through. Which is the right choice for this game?>>
Moving! Before, during, after… this is a cue that involves moving, just like the backsides 🙂
Nice job!
TracyHi!
The head turns are going well! Almost perfect – my only suggestion is to move your hand more slowly. You were flicking your hand fast to get the turn, so she was lifting her front feet off the ground. So, do it more slowly so her feet stay on the ground and it will be perfect! It might take some experimenting to get the right speed, but she will give you great feedback in the form of what her feet are doing 🙂The perch work is also going well! The physical pressure is getting some steps! I am curious to see how the return to center approach would go on this – maybe next time you are at the training building, try it on turf so she can chase the treats off to the side then return to center over the bars.
Nice work!
TracyHi!
This went well with a jump instead of a tunnel – it is a littler harder that way but definitely worked!!
One important thing about layering is that the handler keeps moving – it is not a distance send or gamble. So on the jump on the other side of your barrier, you should be moving on a parallel line and not stopping to send (:04, :19, :38)
>> Even 3-4 is pretty wide.
I think that was because you were stationary, so he had questions.
On the jump past the ‘tunnel’, at :06 you gave a REALLY clear out cue: verbal, connection, arm, motion. Nailed it!
>>Our First rep we got the whole thing, but his turn isn’t very tight from 6-7. I am probably not putting in enough decel, I think. And not cueing it soon enough. >>
I think you were just a little late cuing it there.
In the 2nd and 3rd reps, you mentioned you forgot where you were going – before running him, so you give yourself a good long walk through? I know it is a simple setup but at least 5 minutes of a walk through will really help! We concentrate on walk throughs and remembering courses later in CAMP too 🙂
At :58 you had a good send so he went, but I liked the first rep the best: you were every powerful and clear and early!
He had no trouble doing the layering on the ending line! Yay!
>>I’m pretty sure he knocked the last bar because of my poorly timed toy throw! >>
Yes- toy throw and praise 🙂
Great job here! Let me know what you. Think!
TracyHi!
>>Hi! No worries on the delay! I saw your post on Facebook about traveling, so I assumed it was related to that.
Yeah, Minnesota is not close to Virginia, it turns out LOL!!!!

>>> I was always taught to stop and fix issues, and competing in NADAC for so long has encouraged it, too. There aren’t any refusals in NADAC, so as long as you don’t go off course, you can get as many sheltie spins and barks as time allows and still qualify.Right! We either were told to stop and fix so the dog could “learn”, or so we could Q. But now we know that it is better to keep going because of the arousal states 🙂
>>tell me that I need to stop her and hit the reset button when she starts herding me because she just gets stuck. >>
Look at it differently: she is not herding you. I mean, we have seen Shelties move sheep and it does not look like that LOL!!! Saying she is herding you shifts the blame to her, as if it is an operant choice. (Also, when a terrier does that same exact behavior, no one says: oh look, herding! LOL!)
We know more now about the biology of behavior, so we know it is not an operant choice and not herding. I heard a really good webinar today from Dr. Tim Lewis about the biology of reactivity, and someone asked about choice… and he said, what is “choice”, exactly? And went on to explain how complicated it was. I loved it, total nerd festival LOL!!!
>>All that being said, that strategy has not reduced her frustration (or mine), so it clearly isn’t working, haha!>>
We do encourage people to do a study with their own dogs, test the theory… and see if it works or not LOL!
Looking at the video:
The opening looked great!>>I could not figure out how to consistently send her out to the jump after the weaves and then show her the line to the tunnel. I felt like the issue was that she was jumping to her right, and in order to get the next jump, she had to change leads, but then I couldn’t get her to change her lead back to get the tunnel>>
Yes – it is a serpy line with lead changes for sure! Converging motion and an ‘out’ will totally help.
It was a little hard to see what happened after the weaves, but that is where you can totally use one of the new strategies like turning her in a mini shadow handling circle around you! Good job carrying on and not making it a “thing”. My guess is the giant visual of the a-frame confused her (“why are we running past it, mom?”). You got it beautifully on the next rep when you started there! You were a little too far behind her at 1:26 so it was harder on the next rep – that is where an ‘out’ cue and opposite arm can help! Also, think about the placement of reward for tunnel sends: the rewards were all coming back near you. You will probably see better value develop for tunnels if the rewards appear right a the exit. The blind did work there on that line but I agree- it put you too far behind and eventually resulted in the off course at 2:00.
>>>> I didn’t put it in the video, but we did that line probably a dozen times with most of them resulting in spinning and barking at the tunnel.>>
Try to live by the 2 failure rule, even in handling and even if you are training on different days: if she fails twice, even if it is not in a row – change something to get success and then move on. If can be placing a reward on the line, or giving yourself a lead out. Doing it a dozen times (even if it is different sessions) with mostly failure builds up frustration nears tunnels and lowers the overall rate of reinforcement on the course (which tips arousal into the over-aroused state). You don’t need to run it clean if there is a really hard line – you can just break it down and come back to train on it later.
She had trouble sending out to the jump at :35 and came off the jump before the a-frame at :38. You were a little early on the rear cross at :53. You were pretty masterful at continuing at :35 and doing quick resends on the other 2, so there was minimal frustration and she quickly got back on course. That is GREAT!!
When you get into the 2nd training package, the overview talks about looking for the dog to cue to to leave for the next line. So in all 3 of those spots, you can choose a “feet up” window as her way of cuing you: when you send to the pinwheel jump, keep moving forward towards it and sending til you see her lift her feet – that is her cue for you to carry on. After the BC, you can connect and move to the jump, watching for the feet up cue before moving to the frame. And same with the RC – stay on the RC pressure line til she passes you and lifts her feet to take off, then you can go to the next line.
You were basically using those windows on that line at 2:15-2:17 and she committed really welll!!!
My guess is that feet up will eventually be a bit too late, but it will work nicely to smooth out any trouble spots for now!
>>The other issue we kept having was after that same tunnel (once she got in it, lol). I tried to layer the jump, but she kept reading it as a serpentine line and took the wrong jump. I tried that quite a few times, and I even threw a reward on her line to keep her out there but to no avail. It was very inconsistent.>>
On that line, it was a position and connection question from her:
At :30 and 2:09, you were way ahead and good connection, so she got it right.
At 1:10 – she exited the tunnel and saw you between the uprights and no connection and no verbal, so it was a good guess to come in and take the jump. Good girl!
And with this too – if you tried it more than 2 or 3 times… it is too many reps. Break it down, get success, move on 🙂 You can reset the sequence differently and work on it again at a later date. Doing far fewer reps and looking for high success will go a long way towards reducing frustration.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
It was great seeing you and meeting Dean this weekend! You and Kaladin looked so fabulous and I am glad your thumb was cooperative!!!
Try a GO before the tunnel for the layering, a big loud GO GO GO
That first rep is the important one coming from a tunnel where he can’t see you
The turn on 5 looked good – and he blasted back down the line on the big layer!!
Using the turn away – give the physical cues as he is landing from the previous jump, and he definitely told us what he needs to see on those switch aways! The turning towards you was easy : )
He didn’t read the switch away at :57, and you asked what you did differently there. Here is what the video says 🙂 It was mainly the timing of your feet!
At :45, you started the physical cue (arm and feet!) as he was about 1 stride past landing from the previous jump, and he read it well!
At :56, you started the verbal at a good time but the physical cue started just as he lifted off, turning to his right. Feet indicated right turn there.
At 1:12 you had your arm very visible at a great time – but the rest of the cues (feet!) started as he was approaching the turn jump, so he turned to his right again.
At 1:41, you got in closer and your feet turned a lot sooner – so he turned left. That gives us a great indication of what he is actually reading:
Yes, the verbal helps and yes the arms definitely get his attention but he also needs to see the footwork of the converging motion and feet facing the left turn line. So it is almost a pull-flip like a tandem turn, but at a distance.Great job here! Keep me posted on how the Classic goes, and stay cool!
Tracy
Hi!
>>I was fairly happy with it. Obviously I’d love no sniff breaks but he’s coming back and working hard.>>
Yay! You can build in the sniff/decompression breaks after each runs – scatter some treats in the grass for him to find before asking him to work again. He might need to clear his head.
And hopefully the heat will break too – it is TOO HOT!!!!
T
