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Good morning!
> I feel least confident about (that would be lap turns – LOL – but I think I’m more likely to want a threadle wrap than a lap turn at the Invitational -hopefully I didnt’ just jinx myself!)>
I would be very surprised if you saw a lap turn on the Invitational courses. They are generally seen in Premier courses more than anything else lately. But yes… expect threadle wraps!
Looking at the video:
> I think the first one went the best and then I started thinking too hard about them.>
You had a lot of really good line setting on these, like at :08, and :39!! What she is needing help with is independently turning back to the jump. She is currently relying on you to cue it, which in turn relies on your timing and position. You can spend more time on the wing-to-jump games and get lots of reward for her turning herself away to it, which will make it easier for you both!
When you also have to turn her to the jump, it messes up the line and creates questions about which side of the jump she needs to take:
Watch :51 to :53 in super slow motion and you will see the cues to take the wrong side of the jump. You set it really well then took one step to it with your right foot and your shoulders turned to it… so off she went to the front side of the jump.
You got it nicely on the next rep by holding onto it for a longer time but that made her mad LOL! Isolating the independence of turning herself away (and throwing the reward back behind you without you turning to the jump) will make it smoother for sure.
For the BC to TW: You can finish the BC sooner (at least a stride before she takes off) so you have time to reconnect and set the line. The reconnection was happening as she was landing at 1:18 and 1:31 which caused your motion to turn towards the jump rather than away from it to set the TW, so she had big questions.
During those moments of question, even if she takes the front side and not the threadle side: don’t differentiate the rewards as lotus ball throws versus cookie drops at this stage. She is cueing off of what she sees, so she is not actually wrong – and a differentiation can be confusing/frustrating because she knows the difference 🙂 and we don’t want to add frustration. For now, until she has a high rate of success and understands more about the independence, you can take the threadle wrap verbal off and just use her name. That way, if you accidentally cue the front side of the jump you can still give the big reward without worrying about potentially diluting the TW verbal.
>I’m one of those weirdos that trained Kaladin’s threadle slice with an opposite arm (crossed across my body and up towards my torso/shoulder) and it works well for him. Lift doesnt’ have a good threadle slice yet so I’m open to doing something different for her assuming I can keep the different approaches straight.>
I originally trained cross arm threadles too! I switched to the open arm threadle for most scenarios because it is easier to cue and run. So you can play with the open arm threadle but because she is so small, you will probably also want to dip your shoulder down a little so she can see it.
For the threadle slice here in the video – she is responsive enough to the soft brake at 1:12 that for *her*, it is no longer a threadle. Just a soft brake to turn to the line. That is good to know – she might not need threadles in places that bigger and less responsive dogs would totally need them.
>Will miss you at the Invitational (plus your pudding shots!) I had to laugh because the first email I got after I filled out the form to say I could course build was about assigning people to a ring and you telling them which days you could build (Like I know that when I’m stuck in rotation 5 each day and often near the end the rotation). I just ignored it and a few days later another email showed up saying they had rethought that plan and to just jump in whenever you could. So either they saw the light or a little birdie enlightened them.>
That is hilarious about trying to assign rings LOL!! A couple of months ago they said they’d be in touch to sort out how to manage it, but they never did… so it looks like they are learning on the fly. Assigning people is NOT the way to go so I am sure a little birdie enlightened them 🙂 Hope they are providing good snacks 🙂
Turns out that I would have have travel difficulties anyway, because a large piece of the RV is in the shop and I am not sure when I will get it back.
>And Lift had her ultrasound this morning. They’re sending it out to the ultrasound specialist to review but that usually only takes a day or two. The fecal dysbiosis test will probably about a week.>
Fingers crossed for easy answers!
Nice work here!
Tracy
Good morning!
Strong session here!
Going through the box to the MM? Lovely! She really liked it 🙂
Moving away from the MM was harder – but there were lots of good rewards so she still went through the box. Super!You added your motion to get more excitement but you can also move the MM further away now (15 feet!) and I bet that gets her running too 🙂
The tug break in the middle (and at the end) was perfectly timed and it was nice o see her engage with the toy after all the cookies 🙂 I think throwing the toy behind you to go back to the box shaping focused her on the toy and interrupted her train of thought – it was almost like she forgot what she was doing for a moment. I can relate, that happens to me 10 times a day LOL!!! To make a smoother transition, you can tuck the toy into a pocket or under your arm as you step over to the box for the next few reps.
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
> I think because he “seems” to not be affected by new environments and locations I was more assuming that we would see the same play behaviors in different situations.>
Yes, we don’t really see much of what is going on under the hood with him.>I was thinking of you and Vibe yesterday when I was training my pup outside in 85 degree heat 🙂 He seemed completely unaffected… but the tugging was more like mouthing different parts of the toy and less like full on tugging. Heat is yet another thing that the brain has to process and prioritize (it is kind of life-or-death to be able to regulate the body). My training game was SUPER simple (leash off, engagement on) because I figured the heat would be a challenge.
>after a nice forest hike. >
That must have been so lovely!!! The Chicago area is just getting into spring weather. A few of your MaxPup classmates are in the area and I think it is Dublin that takes classes at the Farm!
The rocking horses are going well of course – great to see him being able to take the game into a new environment. Easy peasy, it is stuff he has seen before and excelled at. He was great with sending backwards to the wings even as you were moving the other direction – that is going to translate into great commitment in the future!
Since he is doing well here, you can do a few things to build on it:
– more distance between wings, for more running for you both. That is fun 🙂 plus it challenges you to have to decelerate into the turns (which opens up countermotion opportunities)
– more distance between wings but you stationary in the middle, just doing one-step sends.
– add random turn and burn exits so he is really driving hard to chase you out of the turns.
When you were rewarding in the middle, you were having him do hand touches but they were slowing him down and swinging his butt wide 🙂 Tight turns are built from the joy of chasing the handler’s line, so you can make the reward more about ‘catch me if you can’ where you take off and run 🙂 Then as he catches up to you, you can throw the reward past you.
Strike a pose went great too! You don’t need yes and get it as markers – you can just do a get it to indicate where to look and go (the yes gets him looking up at you after he gets to your hand).
With that in mind – onwards to the next steps! We are going to make it more of a chain and fade the actual touch by having the reward on the ground (can be a food bowl or the MM) so he will come in and then zip right back out to the reward. You will see that he will start to side-swipe the hand touches and eventually not touch at all: perfect! We want the serp (and threadle eventually) to mean in-then-out so the reward on the ground will help produce that.
Great job here!!
Tracy
Hi!
Amazing! He immediately knew what to do. Your mechanics and connection were super too and that really helped make it easy for him!
He only had a small question at :24 and 1:06 where he checked in with you before going to the barrel. Both of these had him on your left side and I believe that little question was because you were actually too early on the cue 🙂 I know, it is rare that any of us are too early in agility LOL!
What I mean by that is at :24 and 1:06 you were starting the send to the barrel while he was still behind you and before he got to your hand – that seemed a little disconnected at this early stage.
Compare to :39 and 1:28 for example, where he was on your left side and went immediately to the barrel, no questions asked. On those reps, you were a little later with the send: you held your connection back to him until he just about got to your hand, and then you sent. That is perfect for now. As he gets more experienced, you won’t need to wait quite as much but the connection will still be important.
Two other things to do as we build up this game:
Resist temptation to do more than 2 or 3 – we don’t want it to get too repetitive because then it gets boring for him. You can do 2 or 3 barrels, then toss a ball! I think he would love that 🙂
As you work these games – be connected like you were but try it standing up more. You were leaned over to make clear connection, but we don’t want your back to get angry about it all 🙂 So be more upright but also be super connected – that will probably mean using your arm a little less, pointing it back and down to his nose so he can see your connection. And he is growing more, so you won’t need to lean over at all.
You can warm up the next session with a couple of reps like this, then move to the advanced level! And you can also take the baby level outside if the weather is good and the ground is not too muddy.
Great job!!!!
TracyGood morning!
Wowza, he is doing GREAT with the backing up! I think have our Cato bards as the destination make a huge difference for him. It is like he has little eyes on his feet and he is ‘looking’ for the destination so he is able to back up far and back up straight, without flinging himself backwards. Excellent!He is also backing up brilliantly onto the wobble board – no concerns about the noise or movement of the board. What a good boy! I am so impressed!
The only suggestion I have is to prop the wobble up with maybe a towel under the high end, so when he gets off of it, the bottom end (where he is getting on it) touches the ground. I suggest this because we don’t want him to accidentally smash a foot under the board if he puts one foot under it while the other gets on it. He has no concerns about the noise or movement, so now it is just about making sure he doesn’t get a foot caught under it.
Since this went really well, one of the next steps is to revisit it in a new location. If your weather is improving, it would be good to take simple versions of this outside. For example, one cato board and just a step or two backwards to start. You might find that he remembers nothing when he gets outside 😆 or he might remember everything and you can add back harder versions of the game very quickly.
Great job!
Tracy
Good morning!
>I thought we had the groove for RC until I added the prop! I’m not sure what I am doing to cause her to turn the other way.>
The magic of the rear crosses in these early stages is that you need to get ahead of her on the new side, so she can see the direction of the turn.
On the first side, when she was starting on your right: for almost all the reps, you were able to get ahead of her so she turned correctly. Yay! On some of the reps you had to be very quick to get there, but it worked out really well and she was very successful!
On the other side, a couple of things were happened to get her turning toward you like a front cross rather than getting the rear cross:
Mainly, she was not really moving away to the prop because she was looking at your hands (you mentioned this in the video too). That was causing you to wait for her to get past you… which made you late to get to the new side so she didn’t get the rear cross info in time to turn the new direction.
A couple of things to make it smoother:
– send with the dog-side hand empty 🙂 so she can’t lock onto treats in the send hand. You can show her that it is empty 🙂 She got a bit locked into the cookie hands because other than cookies tossed to the prop, all of the line up treats and rewards came from your hand so she was pretty convinced that it was a hand following game.
– the rewards can be thrown from the other hand… unless she locks onto that hand too, and then both hands can be empty until you are ready to reward. We don’t ned a precision reward here, so empty hands are perfectly fine but you will want to toss the rewards rather than hand-deliver them.
– And to get her driving to the prop on the send so you have time to get to the new side, you can warm up a few sends without the rear cross. Just send her to it then throw a treat to it. When she is heading to it really directly, you can add in getting to the new side then tossing the treat in the direction of the correct turn. That should help get her ‘line’ focused and not hand focused.
Nice work here! Let me know how she does with the empty hands and thrown rewards.
Tracy
Good morning!
>So do I just try to get his focus for a minute then start in? Guess I am not sure on how I interrupt him.>
For moments when he is caught in a distraction, to start the pattern game you can move him away, show a good cookie (put it on his nose to help break through the challenge he is having), then toss it. It might feel like bit of lure but it completely designed to help him out in moments where he might not know what to do. (I mean, I would personally love it if someone put a chocolate chip cookie on my nose to help redirect me when I am freaking over doing my taxes hahahaha)
The adolescent brain makes does things like cause the pup to move *closer* to something they are worried about (brains are weird 😂) so moving him away and showing the treat will help. And if he is still too close to something challenging, you can move him further away.
This includes ultra exciting things if they are hard to ignore, not just weird things – watching dogs running through a tunnel is hard for many young dogs, or seeing favorite people 🙂
>Fun to see the next games. Sad that these are the end of Max 1.>
Actually… this is the Supersized class so it is not over yet, it is only halfway through 🙂 The original class (now called Fast Track) is a 12 week class and they finish next week. But those pups were a lot older when they started. Here in this edition of Supersized, the games are released every 2 weeks so you are stuck with me for another 12 weeks!!
> Will you be doing two soon? >
Yes, but ignore it 🙂 That MaxPup 2 will be posted shortly but it is for the older Fast Track group. Your question reminds me that I need to to clarify it for the Supersizers so there is no confusion. You all will get your own MaxPup 2 when this is finished – look for it over the summer which is perfect timing for the bigger games that require more room.
>I don’t think I had mentioned I was laid off right before it started and this has made my time off so much more enjoyable. I was supposed to start new job today but they pushed it out to next Monday. >
Ugh, getting laid off must have been incredibly sucky and stressful but I am glad you start a new job next week! Yay!!
>The good news is I have more time this week to play the last games with Dublin.>
The timing is good now that the weather is better and more daylight to be able to work the upcoming games around your new work schedule too!
Looking at the video:
The rocking horses are off to a great start! You had very clear connection and mechanics – he seemed to completely understand the concept, committing beautifully. You had your wrap verbal too – click/treat to you! Since this went pretty perfectly, a couple of ‘next steps’:
– you can take the barrels outside to give yourself more room and add more distance (you might have to put stuff in them to weigh them down LOL)
– you can move to the advanced level where you are moving faster and rotating a little sooner
– You can add a tug toy 🙂 This will add challenge because he will have to ignore the toy to go to the barrel. We don’t need precision rewards for it, so you can have it tucked into a pocket at first to make it easier to ignore.>1st I had issues trying to figure how to set up and video for you. >
The camera angle was perfect!
> Dublin is eating those pumpkin treats and they were not breaking well >
That was one of the challenges, along with that he was chewing them and they were bouncing all around LOL! So what was happening was he was ended in up different-than-planned angles and sometimes losing his train of thought while chewing (I can completely relate to this LOL!)
He ended up doing threadles on a lot of reps because of the angle of the cookie bounce – he was correct and he got rewarded, so it was still a good session!
So for tossed treats, will his kibble bounce less and not need chewing? If the kibble will still be unpredictable, we can go with a stay and either the toy or the pumpkin treats (or any treat since it is not being thrown)
The stay and the toy reps were great! You were able to line him up in each different position and release perfectly to the serp – so the stay is the winner here! You can reward the stay after you arrive in position for the serp and especially mix in rewards for NOT moving when you put your serp arm out so he doesn’t think the arm is the release. You can reward by throwing a treat back to him when you are in position (it is fine if it bounces around because he can move to get it and take as long as needed to chew it 🙂 ) Ideally you would get into position, put your arm out… then either release with a ‘break’ or ‘ok’, or use a ‘catch’ marker and throw a reward back to him 🙂
>I noticed I kept pointing my feet wrong so will have to fix that too. >
That will be an easy fix when you aren’t worried about the darned cookie bounces LOL! And as you move to the next level of dangling the toy then getting the food bowl or toy to the ground, it will be easy to remember to point your feet to the toy.
>Afterwards I played a little longer and found one of is teeth is very loose. Poor pup can’t win with food or toys today.>
Poor buddy! But he was tugging like a beast 🙂 so I guess his mouth doesn’t hurt too much or he just really loves tugging (or both!)
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
> I practiced the collection exercise using food and a toy, and quickly realized that I needed to work on my own coordination before using the toy. Hah! Work in progress!
I totally relate 😂 it doesn’t matter how many previous agility dogs that I have run… each new puppy requires me to work on my own coordination 😆
>I use the verbal cue “Go” for my forward sends to a clicker board. I will start using it on other objects as well.>
If he goes to the barrel on the “go”, change it as soon as possible as to your wrap verbal. I want him to go to the barrel, but I don’t want him to think “go” means to wrap. Keep me posted!
Tracy
Good morning!
That cracks me up that she does everything in life to the left LOL! I see that in my young dog too: one does everything to the right, the other does everything to the left LOL! It all balances out in sport training but it is good to know what their natural side preference is.
She did great with the parallel path here! A couple of reps where you were a little far so she looked at you but the rest were great even with you running.
On the reps where she missed, I think part of it is that the saw your hand holding the reward and she was a little ahead of you (turned to you) so she was not quite ready for the rep to begin. But when she was behind you a bit and your arms were in a natural position – she was more ready to start the rep and she had no trouble at all. Yay!
I see you have hoops too – you can totally play this game with hoops too!
>We finally got to play with the tunnel! My manners minder was refusing to respond to the remote, so I had to improvise but she seemed content going for the toy…>
That is part of the ‘joy’ of manners minders: they never work when we need them to 😂 😆
She was definitely happy to play tunnel games for the toy! It might have even been more fun than the manners minder would have been.
You can have 2 toys to make it more efficient: one toy is the thrown reward, then the 2nd toy brings her back faster for the next rep.
She had a couple of misses, mainly on your right side (she was looking at you and not at the tunnel on those), but we can help her out with that in the next stage of the game:
Since this went so well, you can add the next steps! Line her up at your side facing the tunnel entry (you can use a cookie to do this), hold her collar (have her wear a collar for this :)), say your tunnel verbal 3 or 4 times… then let her go. That will attach the verbal to it AND get her looking the tunnel more. When she can do that on easy angles of entry, you can start lining her up on harder angles so she can find the tunnel entry from all sorts of crazy approaches 🙂
Great job here!!
Tracy
Good morning!
>I did a session with the toy & lost him after just a few reps again. >
Was this outside too? I think the heat dampens the toy drive after a rep or two. Did he start out strong then fizzle out in terms of interest in the toy? Even in minimal heat (not hot for us humans!) the young dogs can still react to it.
What happens in the heat as is the body heats up, the brain has devote more energy to cooling the body – so less energy gets devoted to things that heat the body up (like tugging). So we get less tugging for most dogs.
Some dogs continue to tug like fiends but they are the ones that risk getting overheated.
For example, I did some training outside yesterday afternoon with my 11 month old pup. It was 80-ish degrees, sunny, no real humidity. GORGEOUS for me! But he got hot fast – after the first rep or two, his tugging got weaker. This is probably same/similar to what happened with Lew. I switched to cold treats after a couple of toy reps. I also worked 3 adult dogs with toys in the same heat using toys – their bodies & brains ‘understand’ how to handle heat so they were able to tug the whole time.
This is something I see a lot with the MaxPup crew – a blip in being able to tug outside as temps heat up because the brain and body needs to handle the heat.
So as the spring and summer heat up (literally 😂) you can do 1 rep with the toy, then switch to cold treats for the rest. I mention cold treats because I keep tiny bits of cheese in the fridge (or pop them in the freezer for a little bit) as a way to keep the dogs cooler, internally, during training. I don’t know if there is any science on that but it definitely helps when I train in the heat and humidity.
I wonder if a cooling coat would help too? How does he feel about wearing clothes? There are a couple of different types – one is basically a cape made of that cool silver reflective stuff. There are others that are actually very cool – I will gather some options and we can play with them.
>I tried a second session with just tossing a treat on treat pouch as a target and it seemed to keep his attention for longer. That is the video I included so you can see it. >
Yes! He was mentally engaged for sure! He was also trotting – was it because the visual of the treat target was hard? Was this shortly after the toy session, maybe he was still hot? The new harness felt different to run in? He was very accurate in the game so I don’t think it was confusion. I am obsessing on the heat a bit because this is the time of year where the pups do struggle a little as they bodies acclimate to warmer weather and all the distractions that come with it. Plus, as a brachy boy, I am extra obsessed with how his body processes heat.
He did have a question at :27 when you pointed to the barrel then turned away from it, pulling him off – then he offered a nice left turn 🙂 Good boy! You can mix in left turns and right turns in the same session, to keep things spicy 🙂
>I think I should try another session and actually put the food on the plate before I line him up with a lineup cookie to include the self control part of the game. What do you think?>
Definitely try it! It is definitely a good self-control challenge!! And it is fun even if he skips the barrel and runs to the treat 😂
>I feel like when I use the toy with turn & burn it is the movement of the toy that pulls him around the barrel but when I use food, he seems to understand that going around the barrel gets him the treat. >
You can do a quick experiment: in the lovely air conditioning, do a short session of turn and burn with a toy, one or two reps on each side. Get him excited then use a leg step/arm point to indicate the barrel, and let’s see what he does.
Then do a couple of reps with a treat, exactly the same as with the the toy but with the cookies instead.
Video all the things and we can compare! It is possible that the presence of the cookies are the context cue to zip around the barrel, and the toy does not elicit offering the same way food does. But if we cue going to the barrel by stepping to it and giving a low arm swoosh to it, perhaps that is all he needs in the toy sessions?
And doing it in the a/c takes out the potential heat variable.
>If that makes any sense. It is just what I’m picking up from him. Maybe I lured him with the toy in the beginning and now he is waiting for that? >
Totally makes sense! He is communicating something so we can ask him a few questions and get some answers 🙂
Looking at the lap turn video:
He was such a good boy here!! He was turning way really well and yes – the best reps were when you kept moving past the prop so he recognized it as the parallel path game at that point.
He had a little trouble coming to your left hand and ignoring the prop – so you can make the hand cue more obvious by getting it lower and shaking it a bit 🙂
Speaking of the hand cue: you can do the turn away cue with an empty hand. Having the cookie in your hand was drawing his focus to your hand (because, HUNGRY haha). The empty hand will make it easier to find the prop and you can toss the reward from the other hand.
Tandems went really well too! Something that was very effective here was that you got his focus on the dog side arm by dropping it low as you decelerated… then you brought in the outside arm to get him to turn away. I think that is great because it helps you keep moving without having to bend over a ton to show the outside arm as the primary cue. So as long as you decel & drop the dog-side arm in low (almost like you are punching it downwards), he is well-prepared for the turn away cues that are following it – he nailed it each time. You can add the prop to it now.
Great job here!!
Tracy
Good morning!
>That was a lot of fun! Although, I found the multiple changes of direction challenging. I wanted to try this with a toy but decided against it for now!>
This went really well. The toy for the ‘go’ at the end is perfect but you might feel like you need 3 arms to do it LOL!! He was happy to chase the cookies too.
The blinds looked great! And it looked like he had fun too! Very clear connection as you finished the blind helped him know which side to go to. For this game, you can add in a deceleration after the blind so he can collect to turn tight as you pivot – he was a little wide on those because he was going fast and the tight pivot caught him a little by surprise. The ‘go’ after the pivot looks great!
He was SUPER with the turn and burn too – I really like the toy as the reward here because there is an element of self-control because he has to leave the toy… and then a super fun tug reward.
>This time, I didn’t warm up with the Vito Game and I think Tribute was expecting the bowls to be out there. I think I will go back to doing that and fade more slowly.>
Actually, I think he was waiting for more of a cue to start on each rep. He was a little slower/less certain moving to the barrel and I think it was because you were completely stationary. So before adding a bowl back to it, you can try adding a cue: when he is at your side and you let go of his collar, you can step to the barrel and point to it a little with your dog-side arm and leg. That moment of ‘permission’ might speed him up to the barrel. We can add a bowl back (halfway around the barrel) if he still seems unsure about starting but it would be fun to see if the cue without the bowl helps him.
Great job here!
Tracy
One thing to consider about the running dog walk: you will also need to train all of the exits and verbal directionals. And while it can indeed be faster on course, it takes a lot more training (as in, can take a year or so).
T
Good morning! Great questions!
The teeter is easy: 2o2o for Copper, and 4on for Bandit because he will be too small for 2o2o (unless he is much bigger in real life – closer to 20 lbs).
The a-frame is a little harder – but I think you and the dogs would have a fun time training and running the running a-frame on course! How you train it makes a difference but it is not that hard: be sure to keep their heads down (rewarding low and long after the frame, not from your hands for example) and use specific criteria (like where to put their feet – I use a mat for that, some use a box, etc)
The running dog walk is much harder, especially with big dogs. A 2o2o is perfectly safe and pretty easy to train, The foundation is the same as the teeter.
A running dog walk is harder to train, you’ll need pretty regular access to the dog walk (one that is adjustable so you can lower and raise the height), and TONS of patience because it takes a LONG time and also includes the learning curve for you to learn how to train it.So what I suggest is to train the foundation for the 2o2o to use on the teeter and as a fall back for the DW. Then play with training the running dog walk and see how it goes – usually the most successful folks are the ones that video a LOT and take an online class to get regular (daily!) feedback on how it is going 🙂
Hope that helps!
Tracy
Hi!
Kaladin’s lap turns went well – they are not his most favorite move because driving into you with you facing him asks for a LOT of collection (he prefers you to be in motion), but he executed them nicely!
Then tandem turn at :56 went well too. I think getting an earlier soft brake arm and shoulder turn will get a better line from the jump before it. Also, I think he will get even more speed if you are closer to the jump before it so you can move through the tandem more. He always drives better when you stay in motion.
Lift’s video:
She did well with the lap turns too! When you executed it as a slow motion move at :48 and 1:36, she read it super well. You were too fast to step back and indicate the jump at :30, so she couldn’t really follow the cue. You can use her lateral distance skills to give more turn cue on the jump before the lap turn and get there earlier (especially at 1:35 where the bar dropped) so you are rotated and ready for it before she even takes off.
>>. I had her go straight instead of into a tandem turn at 2:30 to chase her lotus and she started to completely lose it>
That was a spillover from the 3 things that happened before it:
– broken stay at 1:10 when she released as you reconnected. Be careful to either watch her/stay connected as you lead out, or separate the re-connection from the release with more time and praise, so the re-connection does not become the release.– a disconnection at 1:50 so she almost came off the jump as you were turning but looking ahead. You fixed it but fixing it put you in a bad spot for the tandem.
– another disconnection in the same spot at 2:10 so she didn’t know if she was supposed to take the jump
So then when you said ‘get it’ but disconnected and decelerated, she tipped into the overarousal. The handful of cheese definitely helped, but it was definitely something that had piled up in the session. Yes, she had gotten lots of treats but stopping in the middle after the questions will likely read as frustrating or punishment. She knows the difference between ‘woohooo that was great’ and ‘oops that was not it here is a treat’ So even if there is a bobble, keep going and run to the end and reward for real at the end – it will help with arousal regulation more than stopping and giving her the lotus ball will.
Super nice trial runs!! Excellent warm up for Chicago!
Prioritize connection in Chicago – eyes on him every step of the way. The only questions here were connection questions:
>We were 1 handler disconnection moment (in Masters Agility) >
Yes, I think you just left him in the dust too much so he didn’t know which side of you to be on.
> Also had an almost bobble in Masters Jumping (1:20) where I think the soft arm was a bit much for him or I just botched it as he almost pulled off the red jump>
Connection 🙂 Watch it in slow motion and zoom in: you were handling the jump. Arms and eyes on the jump – but he was behind you so he could not see the connection. You can see him lift his head and look at you, and move towards you. More connection and the soft brake arms more towards him will smooth that out.
>Butn later he did reward me with an amazing switch layer at the end of Masters Jumping even with my giraffe arm >
That was awesome!!!
>Kristin was setting bars in the back corner and got close-up video of the threadle wrap after the weaves.>
Super nice! That is a popular threadle wrap to threadle slice-ish move, I bet you see them in Chicago!
> I plan to try the threadle wrap sequences with her and will try to be closer to the jump but making sure my feet & shoulders are on her line away from the front of the jump. >
Sounds good, and keep going to the end of the sequence no matter what, no stopping, even if you have to make stuff up 🙂
Nice work here!
Tracy
Hi!
>This is super helpful and thank you for all of that detailed information. It really helped me see this a bit differently.>
Happy to discuss the science stuff 🙂 My entire approach changed after learning about all this from Dr. Murphy then going on far too many deep dives on my own (currently in a neuroscience grad program because, why not.)
> I think because he “seems” to not be affected by new environments and locations I was more assuming that we would see the same play behaviors in different situations.>
Yes, we don’t really see much of what is going on under the hood with him. We are not seeing anxiety or big emotions or massive struggles or overarousal issues…. What a lovely pleasure to have a puppy that can do stay so balanced and is so resilient! So the tugging is not as perfect as everything else yet, but it will be 🙂
> But it totally makes sense that he is doing more processing than is obvious in the moment.>
It is perhaps our only tipoff that there is processing happening – similar to a pup that looks perfectly fine but takes cookies with a harder mouth.
>I’ve also been so used to Ripley being such a persistent and strong tugger, anytime and anywhere, that it’s made me forget other dogs I’ve had where we had to build that up a lot more slowly. >
He was a great tugger! He gave you other tipoffs when he was processing the environment, which you were already working on before I even met you. Things like having him put his foot on you if he was concerned about something (do I remember that correctly) and I definitely remember working on getting him to NOT knock over the tiny lady leash runners at the end of a run LOL!
>Vibe doesn’t really seem to like that very much so I’ll have to play with some different options.>
He seems to be happy to do the grabby grabby play with different parts to see what he can grab as you slide the toy around. He stay engaged, doesn’t get mad, and the behavior you are working on builds.
>Also, I’m enjoying the Brain Camp series and have added more up/down game to our stress cycle pre/post run prep (mostly for Rip, but making sure Vibe knows the game too).>
Perfect! I use the up and down a lot – I remember using it at the ring entry for Snooker at the Invitational last year: I was next in the ring and my dog realized there were 2 rings running next to each other, so he had A MOMENT. LOL!! 4 or 5 quick up and down reps brought him right back to a good state and he ran well.
>Chicago area by tonight with ring rental at Agility at the Farm on our way this afternoon. >
Have fun! Safe travels!
T
