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Her teeter is looking good! We can definitely get more drive to the end and more speed. As she is reaching the top of the board, she is slowing down and looking up at you, which slows her down and causes her to stop before the end. I think she needs a more independent job (if you want a slide, the 2on, 2off is the best one for that) so she can go do it and shift her weight into her rear rather than look at you.
And the mountain climber will get her independently driving to the top. You can prop the teeter with something else (like a big barrel or solid jump wing or even a small ladder) so we can work that skill 🙂
Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! Really great session here! Lots of great sending and also really useful info in the couple of spots he had questions 🙂
>>Sometimes my arm is too high
I love low hands! But I also didn’t notice your hands being too high, I think they were good!
>>– Toy in the wrong hand?Also didn’t notice this as an issue 🙂 It is hard to always have it in the ‘correct’ hand especially when we do multiple crosses on one sequence. And he didn’t have questions about the toy.
One thing I do notice is that he turns to his right a tiny bit better than he turns to his left. Part of that is your timing of the FCs on the sending:
When he was on your left (Turing to his right), you were earlier on the FCs so he was very tight and fast! You were rotating and completing the FC before he arrived at the wing. The only one that was a little late was at 1:20 – on that one, you were stepping back and not completing the FC as early.
When he was on your right (turning to his left) you were later on your rotations, almost waiting to complete them til he wrapped the wing (which caused him to go wider, waiting for the rotation, like at :33 and at 1:24). The FC at 1:10 was GREAT!
>>I’m baffled at 0:40. Had to end up removing a wing and still got wide turns there.>>
He is very good at responding to exactly what he sees at :38 and :43 and :49 – those were valid responses from him. It was a conflicting indicator: the verbal said wrap but the body cues were pointing to the soft turn line – so he went with the motion. If you freeze the video, you can see the arm/shoulders were facing exactly where he went even when you took the other wing out. To tighten it, you can rotate earlier so you are fully facing the tunnel before he exits the wing, or do a spin on the wing.
Really nice soft turn to FC sequences at :53-:58 and 1:04-1:07 and 1:15-1:19! Lovely turns, sends, and connection!!! I don’t think you need to go as close to the middle wing on those – I bet he will go without you needing to move past it as much. That is what got the little blooper on the last rep at 1:27-1:29 had a too much motion past the center wing (moving backwards as you were doing the FC) so he was wide on the center wing and didn’t pick up the new line. Staying a little further from the center wing will help him turn tight and let you do the FC sooner so he picks up the new line.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
>>her first time staying in hotels so she was extra exhausted from that new environment.>>
She had a lot of new stuff! She did great!
>>The Lazy Game did not go so well.>>
Actually, she did really well especially for the first time doing it! It is a little weird 🙂 but the goal is to really shift the value to the jumps so you don’t have to work as hard as a handler 🙂
>>Afterward, I thought maybe she was thinking more about “I have to heel next to mom” than she was “take the jump next to mom”>>
I agree that the value of heeling was conflicting with her value for the jump. She was sometimes doing the jump, sometimes heeling.
I was going to suggest switching to your right side but you read my mind hahaha! She did REALLY well on your right side, probably because there is not as much value for heeling on that side. So, work this more on the right side for now, then when you switch to the left side you can throw the rewards a lot sooner: toss the treat as she is on the way to the jump, before she takes it, to help her understand not to come to heel position when there is a jump in front of her. This will make handling sooooo much easier! She might not go fast when you are slowly walking, but that is fine: we will be adding speed soon 🙂
>>Her clockwise reps were the first ones we did and she never got all three jumps in a row during all reps. You stressed no verbals and no hands so I tried just looking at her with normal connection and I tried walking close to the jumps. Her counterclockwise reps were nearly spot on every time. >>
Clockwise = dog on left, heel side. Counterclockwise = dog on right, not as much heeling value 🙂 So it makes sense that she got the counterclockwise reps pretty easily.
>>I don’t think I overstressed it.>>
I agree – she didn’t seem stressed or bored. She was thinking hard, steam coming out of her ears, in a good way 🙂 This game is a lot harder than it looks!!
Looking at the teeter video:
>>Where the fear comes from, I have no idea. She scales hay bales every day. She climbs up my giant haystack for my cows that’s at least 20 feet high.>>
It is pretty normal that adolescent dogs suddenly get worried about something that they were not worried about before. And it might not be a height issue – it might be the movement or noise or narrow plank? Based on how she got on it happily on the first rep and then got sticky/worried at the top, my guess is it is the movement & slam that concerns her? No problem, we can get her happy to do it!
After the first rep, she was able to predict that it was not going to slam or move, so she was definitely happier.
Now, because the first rep is the important one, we can do the teeter training as single reps with mind-blowing reinforcement. You can have a whole meatball for her at the top. Or, some cream cheese or something insane like that! And do exactly one rep 🙂 Then go do something else, and come back later and do one more rep.
Doing the reps one at a time like that will help her associate the teeter with the amazing reinforcement, so she will drive up it like a wild woman on that very first rep 🙂 This will become even more important as we add movement 🙂
>>By the way, I love that you have less common dog breeds as your agility dogs. >>
Thanks! I like to train all sorts of different types of dogs 🙂 I started agility with a couple of shelter rescues and Dalmatians. Little Elektra is half Papillon, 25% BC, 25% whippet (I have 2 other Papillons as well – they help me understand Spaniels!) Contraband is 50% whippet and 50% Border Collie. Ramen is a full whippet from racing lines (fun!) Hot Sauce shows up in a few demos and she is a mix of Rat Terrier, BC, and a couple of other terrier types. And the 2 solid black dogs are both 50% BC and 50% Croatian Sheepdog. So…. There is a lot of variety in the house LOL!!!!!
Nice work here! Keep me posted!
Tracy
Hi!
Her commitment is looking really good so now we can play with the subtleties!
One suggestion is to use wings, even if jumps are available. That will help her get the collection and also ‘saves’ her body a bit more, considering all the reps.The sends on videos 1 and 2 are looking good! Interestingly, the little blooper on each was at :17 on both LOL!!! At :17 on the first video, you needed a little more direct connection on the send. At :17 on the 2nd video, there was pressure to the rear cross line and the opposite arm tossed the treat… so it totally looked like a RC which is how she read it. Good girl!
The rest looked great!You can definitely add your wrap verbals here so she adds more collection. And, add more distance from the tunnel exit to the wing for the send, so she can drive even further away to it.
Video 3 is also looking good! You can use the wrap verbals when you are going to do the FC directly back to the tunnel, and the soft left/right verbals when turning her to the middle wing. Her commitment is really looking strong so you can add even more distance here! It will be fun to see how far away from the tunnel you can send her – using connection and one big send step, can she send 15 feet? 20 feet?
Great job 🙂
TracyHi!
>>Since we already do the teeter, might you have suggestions to speed it up? I had hoped to get a slide with her, but I most likely didn’t train it properly.
Yes! Do you have any video of her doing the teeter? Then we can formulate a plan. If you don’t have a video, no worries 🙂 The mountain climber game definitely helps speed up the teeter!
Tracy
Hi!
>>What is the difference between the deliberate disconnection and the extreme connection for backsides These seem like opposite types of connection for the same behavior, so I know I’m missing something.>>
They are definitely opposite types of connection! And they produce different behaviors. The extreme connection is the cue to move away and go “do the thing” like sending to the backside. The disconnection is not a cue at all – it is a device to be able to run faster 😁 and we are relying on the dog’s understanding of motion and verbal to get the desired behavior.If we disconnect and try to send to the backside, most dogs will end up going to the front of the jump. Or, if we get the dog to the backside but then use extreme connection to their eyes as we run past the backside, most dogs will not jump the bar.
So, for the more complex backsides, we can use extreme connection to cue to the dog to go to the backside. Then as we see the dog heading to the backside of the jump, we can deliberately disconnect and run like mad to get to our next spot (because of the understanding of the backside skill).
This is what you were doing on the first video: big connection to get her to go to the backside, then disconnecting as you ran forward past the exit wing. It went well!
On the extreme connection to the backside, she needs a little bit of convergence towards the backside wing added to the extreme connection to get the backsides consistently. You had the convergence at the beginning, and also at :31 and 1:00 and after that, so she went to the backside nicely!
More convergence was needed at :16 and it can come earlier at :22 and :47 – it can be subtle but based on her responses, the convergence has to be starting before she takes off for jump 1.
She did GREAT with finding the bar even with the disconnection! Yay! Great job throwing the reward behind you!
Looking at the wraps – for her to be able to see the extreme eyeball-to-eyeball extreme connection, you need to be further ahead for this so as she is landing from the first jump, you are almost at the wrap jump and you can turn on the extreme connection. Deceleration is needed to, so there is not too much slamming on the brakes which causes the dogs to not take the jump (this is what happened at 1:41).
Bear in mind that the extreme connection on wraps is not something that all dogs need – most dogs turn really well using regular or shifting connection. So, it is possible that Nox does not need extreme connection on wraps at all 🙂 One indication that the dog doesn’t need it is if they stop in front of the jump rather than jump it, which is what Nox did when there was the most extreme connection element. The other reps had a softer and more regular connection and she did really well.
Looking at the combos: These went well!
Remember to use serp connection on the backside serps to the wing – that is where your feet keep moving forward to the next wing but your upper body rotates to ‘face’ the jump. Each shoulder is lined up to a wing of the jump (your shoulders were perpendicular to the jump bar here). That also sets up great exit line connection on the backside serps too! You were looking forward on these, so she was she is jumping the bar towards you and looking at you (and barking a bit lol). You can see it at :11 and again in the sequences at 1:10, 1:24, 1:41.
Looking at the threadle element: she definitely reads the cross arm for the threadles! It looks like it worked really well because there was more rotation and connection back to her – the rotation might cause a little delay on running forward so you can experiment with just how much rotation does she need to see with the cross arm and still get the threadle.
The cross arm threadle cues at 1:18 and 1:35 were a little late, but she came in immediately to it when she saw it. Yay! So you can start the cross arm even before she exits the wing wrap before the jump, so she sees. The info sooner.
The one arm threadle at :23 might work too if you give a big connection shift back to your threadle arm. Those threadles are generally easier for running forward so it is worth it to see if she can read it 🙂
Building up the whole sequence: This went really well! There was a small blooper on the wing send at :44 (you broke connection on the send to the wing) but you adjusted to add the connection on the other reps and it looked great! She thought the wing-to-wing was stooooopid (because running a long distance and having to pass a jump is stoooooooooopid, thus the barking) but your handling and connection were clear 🙂 so she did it. Yay!
As mentioned above, the threadles worked well and you can start them earlier, and you can rotate your shoulders to face her more on the serps (shifting connection to the landing spot). Those are small details to tighten up lines and keep her focusing forward on the lines.
Great job here!!
TracyPerfect!! They often open it to JAG members first but Linda will send the info early to “friends and family” who are non-members – so definitely tell her that you are in the “friends and family” group and should get a spot 🙂
T
Hi!
The
1st rep here versus second rep also showed us how important the BIG connection and rotation is – if it is BIG, he does the out moving to his right. If it is too gentle 🙂 then he goes straight or to the backside of the straight-ahead jump. And the timing of that is important too: if you start out with the BIG connection, he gets it. If you start out too gentle, he goes straight even if you try to add the big connection after he lands. So he needs to see the strong connection (and accompanying rotation) as he is in the air over the previous jump (or sooner).I do think that pulling the ‘out’ jump in closer will make it easier, so you don’t have to exaggerate the cues as much and increase the success rate.
Great job!
TracyHi!
I think this session gave us a really good look at what helps him read the ‘out’ cue: BIG upper body rotation as part of the connection. If it is not quite enough (not enough rotation or looking the jump and not him, he doesn’t read it at at that distance (like on the 2nd rep or at 2:30).He has a much harder time going to his left on this skill, so definitely move the jump in a lot closer – ideally it would be one stride away so all he needs to do is move away by one stride (not several). And, having the jump in closer will help you be able to not have to rotate as much when he is moving to his right, so you can get the response more easily.
T
Good morning!
On all 3 of these videos, you did a great job of moving as straight as possible and not moving towards the out jump or standing still. Yay!The camera on the ground caused the focus to be on the mats, so it is a little hard to see what what happening for the first part. It put you in focus about a minute into the video – he had a few failures at the beginning when you are moving fast, but then he was able to get it when you slowed down (probably so he could process the upper body cues versus the lower body cues). To be able to add even more motion, move the out jump in closer to your running line, so he can see it more easily (making driving to it easier too :))
Nice work!
Tracy
Yikes, that is far!
The next closest seminar is in New Jersey for JAG (May 7-8-9). Linda Rose (she runs Goldens) is handling it. I don’t think they have done anything with registration yet.
T
Good morning! Baby dog has graduated to the big field – it is very exciting! She seemed happy to be out there 🙂
The sessions went really well:
The plank is looking great! She seems very happy to run across it and also doing position changes/turning around is not a problem.
Because it is hard to find the treats, I thought of an idea for you for this game (hooray for coffee helping me haha):
To get her running back and forth without worrying about tossing or finding treats, you can use the MM on one side of the plank, and the lotus ball for the other. That way she can run to the MM in one direction, then you can toss the lotus ball the other direction. And you can change the position of the MM to add more variation in the angle of approach (think of it as moving ‘around the clock’) and you can throw the lotus ball to different angles too – after she gets the treat, she can drive back across the board to the MM.Good session on the teeter! Great job stabilizing it so she could be really comfy. She was a good combination of ‘yeehaw!’ And being thoughtful enough to be thoughtful. Having the food already placed on the target at the top is a big help. I know she is restricted to her kibble – is there anything else she can eat, like a tiny bit of cream cheese? I think wondering if there is something she can have on her target that she can lick and can also be “glue” for a kibble or two up there. She is going to be driving up there pretty independently so having something to lick will help her stay there long enough for you to catch up (it will also help when we add movement to the board, eventually 🙂 ) If she can only have kibble, we can do a little Top Chef challenge with it and see if we can create a kibble mush (kibble soaked in warm water then mashed into a paste) as the licky stuff for the teeter end.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
I agree, she kinda thought you were nuts haha but this is GREAT for her – it helps her learn to find the line and have a TON of value for it, even if the handling is not perfect. (It is basically the next step to Find My Face: take the jumps even when the connection is not perfect).
If she knows how to find lines even if you are not perfect? You are far less likely to lose her to stress if you are not 1000% perfect. And since it is impossible to be perfect, she will take that as a sign to keep going on her line. Yay!
The session looked great 🙂 My only suggestion here is to toss the treats rather than hand them to her. Or, you can throw a ball or toy – yes, the toy takes a little longer to set up the next rep (because she has to get it, bring it back, play, etc) but the toy or ball can add a lot of excitement to this game 🙂 And with throwing the rewards, you can add more and more distance too!
Great job!!
TracyGood morning! The baby plank worked perfectly!
She is looking confident here – yay! You can add in more challenging angles of approach by tossing the treats on even more of an arc towards you and even a little bit behind you, so she learns to load on the plank and stay balanced even when coming from weird angles. Hopefully you never see weird angles of approach on course, but we want her to be prepared for everything!
She did really well turning around on the board too. You can hold your hand a little lower (at shoulder level for her) when turning around so she is standing more and not sitting as much.
Do you have anything you can use to raise the height of the board, like thick books or yoga blocks? You can also use deflated balance discs under one or both sides of the board, to add an element of movement and more balance. The discs can be really deflated so the board doesn’t fall off of them 🙂
Great job!!
TracyGood morning!
I agree – he did great here 🙂 He was super confident on the plank! Yay! Good job getting a series of different angles of approach with your cookie tosses. Yo can add in tossing the treats a little behind you so he has even more of a curved line back to the plank
Turning around was no problem as well. Super!
Since this went so well – do you have anything you can put under the plank to elevate it an inch or 2? Yoga blocks or thick books or anything can work – he is ready to have the board lifted off the ground a bit more.
>>He was off last night and did not want to eat all his dinner. He would go all day if I let him but it is my job to recognize over load.>>
He had a busy day a lot of treats 🙂 A day off is great for mind and body. Does he like toys – tug toys, or balls, anything non-food? We can use toys that he likes so he doesn’t go on cookie overload 🙂
>>With the first set done I hope I can now keep up and will feel more comfortable video all my training sessions.>>
Yes! These videos looked awesome! Keep on posting – great job!
Tracy
