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Hi! All of these games are looking lovely! The suggestions are mainly about head position (his, not yours haha) and markers:
He did great with his parallel path work! He has a ton of value for it and is very happy to go to it. He wants to watch you, though, and we want him looking forward at the line. Easy fix: As you keep adding distance away from the prop here, change the ‘yes’ to your ‘get it’ marker. The ‘yes’ marker gets the dogs looking up at us and the ‘get it’ keeps them looking straight. So you can say ‘get it’ just before he gets to the prop (rewarding him for committing to the line to go to it) then throw the treat straight, before he looks at you.
Nice job with the countermotion! This is where the yes is effective because we want him looking at you after he hits the prop. The only thing to add here is a moment of engagement with you before you send him. Rather than loop right back into the send for the next rep after a reward, call him to you. Then engage with him with a bit of the ready dance 🙂 then send to the prop. That gives him a clear picture of when to start driving to it, and makes it easier for you to add more and more countermotion too!
Backing up: He is doing so well with this! Yay!
Because he is short and we want you to keep the reward hands low (at or below your knee the whole time) so he doesn’t try to look up at you while backing up: you can totally sit on something (a low stool or on the edge of a chair, so there is enough room to lure him forward between your feet?). That way you a rest your elbows on your legs, dangle your hands down low so he keeps his head low, and just flick the cookie towards him when he backs up. That will keep his head in a more natural position which will lead to even more steps backwards 🙂You can also play with the advanced level where he is backing up to a target like a mat or low bed!
Great job here!
Tracy
Hi!
>However, watching back I feel I am pushing in too fast too soon on her.>
Yes, you were pushing in a bit too much and pushed her off the line at :14 and :22. The placed reward helped her a lot… but then it didn’t matter what the handling was because she was going to the reward no matter what 😂 😆
So for the next session, don’t try to throw early or place a reward – set the line by running to the center of the bar then moving to the other side when she is past you so she can commit and turn 🙂
For the ladder grid:
>I tried her closer with the five feet spacing but she didn’t seem to have the power to get through it without the double tap now. We changed it back to four feet and she seemed to do better.>
The sorter spacing was definitely better for now! She did not double tap, but she is also really young (6 months-ish, right?) so the power will continue to develop and she will be able to go back up to 5 feet when she is in a more adult body 🙂
Also, be sure you are not facing her on the release. That might have been cueing collection and reducing her power on the bigger distances.
But because she is so young, this doesn’t need much revisiting at all 🙂 Maybe every 2 weeks or so – you will see that her form won’t really solidify until she has a more mature body.
Looking at the Diamond game: this went really well!
Gorgeous connection on the racetracks in both directions!! That looked super smooth through the session (and fun!)The tight blinds were really good too – she is VERY strong at reading the beginning of the cue, so even when you were late she was able to produce a nice tight turn. But when you were earlier (trusting her commitment and starting the blind when she was halfway to the wing) like at :59, her turn was GREAT! So definitely keep trusting her. And be sure to look all the way back to her as you finish the blind: when you were not looking back or switching the toy from hand to hand, she would look at you for more info. So as you finish the blind, look back to her eyes and say the next verbal directly to her – that will keep her looking at the line.
Great job!!!
TracyHi!
He is doing well with his barrel wraps!!!
To take him to the Turn And Burn game, you can fade out the back and forth with the treats. You can start him on one side, send him around the barrel with an arm and leg cue (same as you did when you sent to the prop). Then be stationary til he finishes the barrel… and then do a front cross and run a few steps before rewarding.Have a line on the ground at the exit, so ypu can watch for him to get there before you do the FC and run. That line will incrementally move back towards where he is starting so you can do the FC sooner and sooner. That will take a couple of sessions 🙂
The lotus ball is fine to use – you can add a line to it so it is more of a toy to drag as you do the FC and run. And before you bring out food, try a session with a long dragging fun toy. I think the key to toy play is a long toy you can drag for him to chase as you run away. Try to get it on video so I can see why he doesn’t want to play with toys.
Nice work here!
Keep me posted!
TracyHi!
I agree, he has the concept of backing up! Yay!
I also agree, he is a little erratic in his movement 😀So to smooth it out, let’s give him less room to back up and a lower, bigger object to back up on to. At this stage, form is more important than distance or number of steps. With that in mind, start him only one or two steps away from his target. Stay nice and close til he is smooooth 😀
The target he’s backing up to now might be a little high and narrow for his little legs, so you can try something that’s maybe an inch tall (like a crate pad)
Because he’s growing so much, he will basically have to re-learn his mechanics each time his legs grow 😆 so keeping him closer for now will make the backing up smoother 🙂
Nice work!
TracyHi!
>Aelfraed was excited and happy for his training today. He had been able to have more outdoor time earlier and it didn’t seem like he needed to run extra before training but we did start with the diamond game so that he could run straight away.>
Interesting! I am glad he was feeling good for training – I bet it becomes a non-issue when the weather improves 🙂 And starting with the diamond was a good choice for sure!
The Diamond went well! The race track looked great and he transitioned from extension to collection for the blinds really well!
You might notice he was drifting a bit wide on the blind cross exits at :11 and :27 on the first side and at :44, :59, 1:37 on the other side – that was because you were trying to connect with the dog-side arm while keeping it closer to your body, so he didn’t really see the connection until a stride or two late. At 1:09 an 1:21 he never saw the new connection so did not make the side change.
Ideally you can use exit line connection (the opposite arm across your body) to get the dog-side arm way back to his nose. That will tighten up the turn by showing very clear connection.
The rep at 1:57 had good timing and the best connection, which is why it was the tightest 🙂
The rear crosses were really strong!! The first one (:10) was a stride late which is why he turned after landing. But the rest were clear and timely so he was able to get the new direction easily. Super!!!!
Backside wraps are going well! Getting the toy in nice and early helped! You can now start to delay the reward a bit by waiting to get a little more commitment – you will get this by shifting your connection to the landing spot (and not looking at him) as he gets to the wrap wing. Looking at the landing spot and pointing to the landing spot with the hand next to he jump will support commitment so you can throw the reward a bit later (like when he begins to take off) rather than as an aid to help him take it.
Looking at the serp/tunnel proofing game:
>He was enjoying the cookie toss start, although it definitely made it more challenging to be in the correct position.>
Since we don’t want to try to outrun him to position, the secret is to get into position then toss the start cookie 🙂
He did well on this! The serps and threadles and tunnel cues all looked difference, which really helped him be very successful. He had a question at the beginning (went past the serp) but that might have just been him grabbing the treat and not processing the cue in time.
The only other question he had was about the threadle:
Keeping your threadle arm back until he takes off for the jump will take out the question he had at :42 – you turned forward which actually cues him to not take the jump, good boy! The threadle arm staying back will keep your shoulders rotated to the jump to help commit him to the jump.The arm was a back for longer at :48 and he found the jump nicely!
>However, the last few times we have trained, he consistently opens it himself if he felt the activity/repetition was easy and consistently looks to me to open it for him if he had to concentrate hard or found the thing he had just done more challenging.>
That is so interesting!!! Might be bandwidth thing, where he is using the brain space to answer the harder question and needs help getting the lotus ball open. And the easier games might leave more brain space available for the mechanics of getting the treat ball open?
Great job here!
Tracy
Hi!
>We practiced this Sunday with a treat and train>
It might take a while to build up drive to the TnT – many dogs are just ‘meh’ about it. But the toy moving works well for these!
No worries about the FOMO hound LOL!! It is hard to be left out of training and to have a girl in season in the house!
Theses sessions were interesting and informative! Overall, her form was really good, so these suggestions are just about tweaking the set up and mechanics so she rehearses her good form over and over.
>I need to work on stays and releases.>
Yes – you mixed in lots of rewards and she did well! You can keep mixing in rewards, including when you lead out past jump 3 and put the toy down: definitely reward her for staying 🙂
Looking at what produced the best form: that was when you were pretty far past jump 3 before the release (10 feet or so past it), and moving the whole time with the toy dragging until she got to you.
The best example of that was the last rep (2:32) on the shorter video – the 2:38 long video that was posted second. She was powerful and balanced on all three jumps! Nice form!
The previous rep on hat same video (1:54) was also good!
When the toy was not far enough from jump 3 or it stopped moving before she got to it, she elevated to pounce on it (you can see that at 1:02 on the shorter video and 3:09 on the longer video, for example).
And if the toy was not on the ground when you released her or stationary the whole time, she was not as powerful or organized with her footwork as she was when the toy was out ahead and dragging.
She didn’t see to have any questions about the angled jumps! Yay! And I think the distance was really good here too!
Nice work! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Good morning!
Look at how old her stay is, even when you were shoving the toy into your shirt! Good job rewarding that at the beginning and sprinkling in stay rewards a lot during the rest of the session too.
The zig zags are going really well – you were showing the line really well and she seemed to have zero questions about changing her leads in both directions. You were able to get out to the 3rd wing and she did great!
Since this was pretty perfect, you can move the wings closer together by about 6 inches) so she has to change her leads faster in the next session – and your cues will need to be quicker too 🙂
Looking at the rear crosses:
>Obviously the rear cross drill is a test of my throwing abilities, sigh..>
I don’t think it was a toy throwing question – yes, it helped when you threw really early at first but then she just started warching your hand and not the jump.
Her questions were about timing. You were late on the RCs to the right on the first part of the session – late by only one step! Being young, she needed to see you more fully on the new side and since she did not, she turned to the original line. And the reason I think you were late was because the distance between the wing and the jump was too short to give you enough time to get to the other side before she committed. She only had a short stride before commitment.
Your mechanics of staying near the wing, accelerating, and running the line to the center of the bar were really good! Keep doing those! So the next session just needs more room 🙂 Try for at least 20 feet between the wing and the jump so you can run more and get through the RC line before she takes off. That should help a lot! And if you know which side she turns better towards, try that side first (she is looking pretty balanced lately so I can’t remember which side is stronger :))
Nice work!
Tracy
Good morning!
Yes, this winter has been a beast and I am ready for one good weather!!
He is doing well with the ladder grid – my only suggestion is to have jump 1 lower (4 inches perhaps) so that it is easier for him to push off for it. It was a little high here so he was mainly using upwards as compared to the other jumps where he was showing really lovely form!
Do you have enough space to do the moving target part of the reward? He is ready for that, even if the target is not moving far or fast 🙂
If not, you can do a bit of motion-added set point work: take out th 3rd jump and use the 2 jump set point (first bar lower, 2nd bar a bit higher because he is old enough to see a bit more). And have the moving target moving really fast, to get him maintaining lovely form even when there is more motion and excitement for you.
Great job! Stay warm!
Tracy
Hi!
I think this went really well with your handling and connection on the blinds!! Your timing was looking good and his turns were tight too.
You were also showing him countermotion on the wrap wings – he had a little question on that in the beginning (when you were trying to FC and move away sooner) but he did commit and got better and better at committing as you worked through the session. Yay!
>once he thought I was going to reward him as I had lost some connection to him.>.
Yes he did look like he thought it was the toy for a moment but overall did a great job ignoring the toy that was in your hand – he had to go past it a lot and did a lovely job!
I think the only thing to add here is planning the verbals and walking the sequence without him – and video it so you can review it. I think either the video was reversed so I was seeing a mirror image, or you had your left & right verbals flipped by saying left when it was a right turn and vice versa. But the tone of the soft turn verbal was still different from the wrap verbals so it was still a good verbal learning experience for him!
Nice work here!
Tracy
Hi!
>We were a hot mess at the start>Definitely NOT a hot mess!!!
A couple of things happened at the start which caused him to ask questions:When he kept flipping to the tunnel (on the wing closer to the 2 klimbs) it was because you were blocking the wing and stepping toward him, which added pressure to the tunnel. When something like that happens (like going off course) yo can reward him because off courses are all handler-induced even if we can’t tell why in the moment 🙂
He had a couple of questions about the blinds, because you were doing them as spins (front cross to blind cross) rather than normal blinds. They had to be super quick to get the FC and BC in on time so he didn’t always see the connection for the blind. So for the normal blinds, remember to turn away from him and not towards him. I think you will find it easier for the timing because you only have to do one handling more (the blind) instead of 2 (the FC to the BC)
The race tracks went really well! Nice connection! I don’t think you need your arm up at all – you can just jog/run while staying connected. When you were pointing a lot, it slowed you down and sometimes changed the info he saw.
Great job here too!
Tracy
Hi! This was a good session! He seemed to have no questions about the distance, and you got lots of good stay rewards in too!
So now we can ramp it up! For the next session, start him closer to jump 1 (maybe 6 inches from it) so he has to push off of his hind end to get over jump 1 (not striding in from his front end).
And, go to the moving toy target (more rewards for the stay might be needed because this will be exciting!) I couldn’t see the reward target here but it sounds like cookies in a bowl? And his form looked like it was a stationary target – all good for a first session! Adding the moving target will get him looking down/straight more and powering off his hind end even more. Lead out about 10 feet past the last jump and then start to drag the toy slowly, then release him as you keep moving forward slowly. And video it so we can see his form 🙂
Nice work here!
TracyHi! He is doing really well with this difficult discrimination!
You can adjust the setup a bit here – angle the jump 90 degrees from where it is here so the bar is perpendicular to the tunnel entry and not parallel to it. That will allow you to get more of a serp line (where he comes in on a slice and back out) He was jumping straight here on the serps which was a good discrimination challenge but you can make it even more challenging by moving the angle of the jump.
For the threadle slice:
>I think on close I was moving too soon?>
Yes, on the reps where he was taking the front of the jump, he was on a really hard angle of approach (not facing or seeing the threadle entry) an you were moving too soon as well. So be sure to put him on more of a threadle line where he if basically parallel to the bar and outside the jump wing. That will allow you to ad more movement.
You can also keep your threadle arm back as he gets to the threadle side, rather than turn it to indicate the jump bar. The threadle arm should indicate both the come in and go back out without you needing to move it.
Great job!
Tracy
Hi!
Nice work getting him started on this!
He is still learning to use all his legs LOL so you were starting to get some steps especially when you went to the other side of the room. The more you tossed the treat between his front legs, the more he was thinking that maybe it was backing up that you wanted him to do 🙂>So when I put the treat on the floor should it be my get it? Since I am not giving it to his mouth I realize I probably shouldn’t be using yes.>
You can say get it when you put it on the floor. And when you toss it, I think ‘yes’ or even ‘catch’ would work there really well for now!
Because he is so young, this might take a couple of sessions for him to lock it in, but he is definitely on his way! You can try the session again in a day or two, starting where you left off here, and see how he does.
Well done!
TracyHi! Hopefully work is settling down and not as stressful! A week of fun stuff and decompression walks is a wonderful thing!
>One benefit of all of our “get measured” training was that he wanted to beeline for the podium every time we walked by it.>
Ha! Podium practice is always useful 🙂
>I first shaped this about a month ago when he was 11 weeks old and he learned it faster than any dog I’ve trained to do it before. >
He reminds me of my dog Export – unbelievably good with his body at this early age. Fast little feet backing up! Fun times ahead!!
I think the next step is to have you sitting on something but not standing yet – standing might cause him to lift his head too high, which will cause him to push off with his front feet. And form is more important than whether you are standing or not, so you can sit on something comfy 🙂
For the next steps, body awareness can be added even more: raise the height of his mat a tiny bit, maybe an inch so there is a small element of stepping up onto something more so than he I doing here in these videos.
Plus, we will be adding movement to the target he is stepping up on to. So you can have his back up destination be a wobble board (with limited movement at first and towels or something shoved under it) so he is backing up and balancing on something that moves.
One more way to expand on this: break off the session and tug frequently to ask him to back up while he is in a higher arousal state – basically, now is a good time to create the neural pathways for excellent hind end use while he is more aroused! State dependent memory and all that jazz 😉
Shorten up the distance for the backing up at first because arousal might change his mechanics – or it might not change his mechanics, but carving out those neural pathways in higher arousal will still be incredibly valuable 🙂Great job here!
Tracy
