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Good morning!
The parallel path game is going great! He totally figured it out in a heartbeat!
Two suggestions:
– instead of yes, switch to your ‘get it’ marker so he continues to look straight ahead and not at you.– I love that you added a toy! I think the disc as the toy was promoting more head up approach & looking at you and circling you. So use the ring that I think you have used in the past? And roll it so he can grab it while it is rolling on its side. That will get the behavior we want on the jump without the disc-tracking behavior added in.
Backing up: because he wants to go into that super adorable bow, good job keeping the reward placement high at the beginning! The high and position totally helped, excellent adjustment. It is hard to get the cookie to him fast enough to prevent sitting, so if he sits – don’t hand deliver it in that moment, toss the treat to the side with a get it marker. That will add a response cost so he will sit less (because why sit if you just have to get up again LOL)
You were able to get some good backing up going! So for the next session, start where you left off here and then add a tiny bit more distance so his back feet can come off the board then step back on.
Rocking horses: Ooh, look how slithery he is wrapping the cone! A true noodle with really excellent commitment and tight turns. YAY!
The forward sending looked strong and the earlier rotation and adding more motion looked GREAT! There was a spin in there too, he read it really well. You can add more distance between the cones now and also since he is committing so nicely, add your wrap verbals 🙂Two things about the reward process:
You can use more of your markers. You are using “yes” a lot and it indeed a ‘come get your reward’ marker, so if you are early you will still want to reward (like at the beginning when you marked early and presented the reward, so he went directly to it and didn’t finish the wrap – he was not wrong in that case. You can also use a ‘toy in hand’ or ‘cookie in hand’ marker, or a ‘get it’ when you are throwing the reward.
I know he loves the disc but it also produces unwanted anticipatory behaviors such as circling you, starting without you, and head up – basically, waiting for you to throw it LOL!! So switch to a tug toy so he drives in to you after the turns and is not looking for the disc throw.
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
More foundation is needed before you add more teeter skills. To fully build the behavior, take it off the teeter board and teach the foundation of stopping while you run on. It is a foundation game on the flat. I am using a sit here but you can also use a bow and a little foot target on the bow.
At first, it is worked on the flat with nothing out ahead: can the dog respond to the cue when you are staying in motion:
When that is super solid and you can run, we add something out ahead (Manners Minder or toy, I teach both) and go back to walking:
And build up to running.
This is a critical foundation piece for the teeter and also I like it for weaves and running contacts too, because it teaches hind end engagement even when am running.
Have fun!
Tracy
Good morning! Hope you had a fun weekend!
He had really good hind end awareness here on the teeter at the beginning – he totally knew where it was and how high it was… so he turned around to get on it LOL! He is so smart 🙂
It was probably a little too far off the ground for consistent backing up – he got it sometimes, and was a bit sideways/turned around. So maybe have it a half inch lower? He is definitely thinking about his hind end independently which is great, so a tiny bit less height will help get more consistent backing up straight.
>probably should be rewarding his head lower, and should I bring back the front foot target to get him further back on the teeter? >
Yes, slightly lower for the head. But also, since the emphasis on the backing up is just the hind end, no need to add more criteria to it with a front foot target as well – that will get him thinking about his front end more than we want right now.
But when you do the sending into the 2o2o position then yes – that is where the front foot target can come back in to get the exact position you want (a little less stretched out, but not too crunched up :))
He was so funny when he ran over to the teeter with the toy from the first retrieve LOL! Good boy! I am glad he loves the teeter. The retrieves looked great and you might have to block the teeter so he doesn’t keep trying to offer it LOL
Moving into strike a pose:
The cato plank is a good way to work the stay into it, but flip the mechanics a bit:
At 3:27 you asked him to get on the plank, cued a wait, gave him a treat then walked away without connection to go set up the rest of the game. He immediately moved out of the wait. Yes, he stayed in a 2o2o on but ideally he doesn’t leave the sit at all and you stayed connected.So have everything set before you cue him to get on the plank, then cue the sit. He can be on his cot or in an xpen, then get called into the session when you are ready so the start line transition remains clean. You don’t need to hand deliver a treat for assuming the stay position because many dogs read that as the end-of-behavior and move when the handler moves away, and leave the stay.
>My motion is still creating the over the jump.>
You can use a manners minder so you don’t have to plop the treat into the bowl (and so you don’t have a naked treat in the bowl if he goes directly to it LOL) That way you can remain in position and just click the MM button.
>I would like to get him working for the toy on the ground, but not sure that will be a huge motivator for him. Definitely more food motivated.>
He does love moving toys – When you have other people around, you can tie a favorite toy to a long line and put it on position. Have someone else holding the line and as he gets to the correct serp or threadle line, they can take off and drag the toy for him to chase. FUN! You can test drive that on the flat to make sure he understands it first.
He had a threadle question: at 6:35, for example, he could see mist of you between the uprights and you were looking at him, so he serped. If you have more of you visible outside the wing and look at your threadle hand when you release him, he will see the threadle cue better can get it right on the first rep.
One other suggestion: for now, use a bump not a bar. As you were working out the mechanics, the bar was coming down and we don’t want to rehearse that. So in these early stages, a bump so if he needs to sort out footwork, he won’t desensitize to the bar falling.
Nice work here!
Tracy
Good morning!
> Dogs were both great>
Of course they were 🤩
>spent a lot of time pushing back a bit and advocating for them.>
I love that you did that but kinda hate that you had to. Sigh.
> I’m looking for advice on our issue with Vibe freezing as a arousal goes up and I ask for a stationary behavior or start line. >
Ah! I haven’t really seen it in videos, so feel free to post those up!
You might not know, but my Hot Sauce did the same thing as a youngster (she is almost 8.5 years old now). And it is something we see on the behavior side of dog sports for sure. So I have many many ideas – and Hot Sauce turned out well as an agility national finalist (woulda won based on her speed except shame about my handling oopsie hahaha!!!) and a flyball national champion. We will figure Vibe out and help him un-freeze.
Side note 1: all dogs have some sort of default/wired response to high arousal. Because no one has done studies on the higher arousal dog sports, we can anecdotally categorize it (from decades of observation) into one of the F responses. Vibe and my Hot Sauce (and to a lesser extent, in flyball only, my Ramen) go to the Freeze response. My Jitterbug used to go more to the fight response (bark/lunge as a baby dog, he is almost 4 now and completely dog neutral). My Dalmatian used to go to the Flight response (zoomies) back in the early 2000s. My Papillon, Nacho, used to go to the Fawn response as a baby dog (enlisting social support by going to ring crew). Which do you think Ripley defaulted to as a youngster? I don’t see it appearing in training or in the ring with my 2 youngest dogs because we have tapped into the framework very early on, which is what we will do with Vibey.
Side note 2: I see you also have the Cracking The (Behavior) Code webinar so you can ask a ton of questions over there too! The auditors are more than welcome to ask super specific questions about their dogs. We address a lot of this in that series.
Side note 3: This is out of my field of expertise, but there might be a link to the gut biome so maybe consider a supplement or probiotic? Both Hot Sauce and Ramen are currently on folic acid to supplement folate that was clinically low – I have never seen them run better. More on the medical stuff below.
>I’ve mostly avoided forcing the issue or creating any conflict.>
That is step 1: don’t add conflict, pressure, or stress to what is a stress issue (I am using stress and overarousal interchangeably here, because that science behind it considers them the same thing in terms of what creates the behavior).
Basically, you will want to avoid asking for stay behavior in any context where you want to work on handling and he might freeze. That might be a hard challenge in front of him, or pressure from people/dogs being nearby in a seminar setting, or since he is so young – just the presence of the obstacles after a rep or two. Adolescence can make this harder to pinpoint.
In the early ‘move not freeze’ plan, we develop a toolbox of ways to get the dogs into the sequence happily without a stay. This includes a bunch of games in the Agility Launch sequence: ready-set-go starts, behind the back, moving patterns, cookie toss starts, sending to a wrap wing or cone to start so you can get ahead, etc.
Not in that webinar are using restrained recalls. We spend some time teaching the dogs the joys of the restrained recalls – we send the dogs to line up for someone else so we can do a lead out. It is a great way to make handling the pressure and arousal SUPER fun without adding the stay behavior early in training. I will see if I can dig up a video of sending my dogs into the pressure of it and how much they enjoy it. There are folks out there in agility who trash talk restrained recalls as a fun training game, but I think they just don’t know a lot about them (and I haven’t had time to open the conversation about it with them, not enough hours in the day LOL)
Also, age is a factor: he can perform skills like a mature dog but his brain is very very adolescent. Can’t change biology of life stages LOL! So we proceed carefully bearing in mind that the prefrontal cortex is not driving the bus here all the time 🙂 Just like my brain is no longer youthful and very plastic (can’t change biology of life stages LOL), his brain is still in that hyperplastic state with waaaaay too many neurons doing waaaaayyyyyyy too much stuff (and then the little pac-man glia eat the extras at night but I degree 🤣) and a LOT of emotions. So many emotions. And not a lot of cognitive ‘choice’ in a higher arousal state.
>I’ve got your start line class from years ago and been working through that content. >
Thank you for taking the class! For now, I think the most important games for him are the Pink Panther game, and the Volume Dial stuff leading to the Brain Scramblers. These are helpful and fun!
And Hot Sauce and similar freeze dogs did best when we re-wrote the biology at the start line:
In the Cracking The (Behavior) Code webinar, I suggest we put him through the entire Impulse Control framework – the freezing is not a traditional self-control behavior like grabbing for treats, etc, but there are physiological impulses that are causing it so we definitely work the framework to handle the biology/nervous system.
He did do the puppy version of the framework in MaxPup 1 (not sure how much you did, I would have to look back, but also he was pre-adolescent so we probably need to wake up those pathways if it has been a while). For the framework in the Code webinars, I suggest using both the moving behavior (doing that first, to fluency) and then the stay behavior with the reward coming for moving out of the stay/the release and not rewarding for holding the stay (because we don’t know what is causing him to hold the stay).
The Code webinar currently has the first 2 steps (novel-neutral and novel-exciting) posted and the next step comes in Webinar 2 with the craziest stuff coming in Webinar 3. So for now, work those first 2 steps with the up-and-over a cato plank behavior, and let’s see where he is with them. Hot Sauce demos the stay behavior there with some classic facial expressions showing how hard it was even with very simple challenges.
>Wondering if you have advice for in the moment with the freeze of how to help him get unstuck.>
For now: only ask for a stay when you know he will release. This is not a stay question from Vibe, it is not even a cognitive choice! So if there is any chance he will freeze – don’t ask for a stay. We know the stay behavior exists, so I am not worried about that. I want him to be able to release, and with the whole Hebbian “neurons that fire together, wire together” thing, we want to do our absolute best to NOT fire the freeze neurons (let the little brain pac-men eat them up from lack of use!)
So when training, you can assess in the moment and lean into all of the other ways to start that don’t require a stay. And since you are a strong advocate for your dogs, you can still do a sequence at a seminar that might require a long lead out: send him 6 miles away for a wing wrap start 🙂 Or if/when he loves lining up for other people, you can use that! Lining up for others then blasting away when you call him is also a great way to help him cope with all of the people near the start line: love them but ignore them 🙂
> I’ve tried some things like hand touches to movement and re-cue, moving away from the anticipated obstacle and re-cue. Pattern games, treat and toy tosses behind when he’s still able to respond before that point but think I need more in my tool box. >
If he freezes, something we can look at is running Spike (it will make sense when you watch the Code webinar) to basically say: there is reward out here! If you do go back to him when he freezes, you can basically just lure him out of position then play, but don’t ask for the sit again. Ideally, however, we never see the freezing again 🙂
Last thing: as you start working the behavior side, be sure to take a look at thorough look at the medical side. When working with freezing, we are at about a 75% ‘found something’ rate of an underlying medical thing happening. And it happens in the higher arousal/higher pressure/more challenging environments because of the bandwidth the young brain needs to be able to process the internal/external environment, underlying physiology AND the trained cues. Basically, at home, the brain doesn’t have to process nearly as much (much easier environment, fewer distractions) so the brain is able to process and cope with whatever the body has going on.
But when the cognitive load increases – whatever is really hard gets prioritizes by the brain (like protecting the body from pain). So that is a big reason why we see behavior change (not just dogs that freeze).
For example: Hot Sauce turned out to have a luxating patella that was also causing psoas pain. It was incredibly hard to diagnose because she is a well-muscled terrier mix and the patella exam is done standing: so she just clenched her muscles and locked her knees. But as soon as they had her on her side for the exam… grade 2 luxating patella on the left. So her brain was protecting her body from the ouch of the knee popping out and the psoas ouch when she drove out of a stay behavior.
And it isn’t always orthopedic. Sometimes it is an underlying illness (tick stuff, thyroid, UTI, etc – we have found it all!) Currently my whippet Ramen has had a battery of health tests to figure out why he is struggling to cope in harder environments (after 2 years of having no struggles at all). It is currently narrowed down to either a urinary issue (soooo many different results on urine testing that correlates to different behavior in the ring), or a salivary gland issue (bacteria in there found with a FNA), or low folate. Thank gawd he is insured LOL!! So many tests and specialists. But urine has been good for a couple of weeks now and he is on a folic acid supplement – and has been fabulous in the ring for 2 weekends in a row (including no freezing).
Anyway – that might be more than you wanted to know about all the things LOL! Vibe is young and brilliant, and we have a lot of fun ways to help him out! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Good morning, hope you had a great weekend!
>Scholar is so fast and knows what I want him to do,
This is true! He is fast and also doing really well with the lines and commitment!
>after I try it a few times he has it memorized and is ready to do it on his own lol.>
This is also true LOL!!! He is smart 🙂 That means you will want to switch sequences after every 2 or 3 reps, so he is responding to handling and not just remembering the sequence.
These sequences are going very well – he is committing really well and turning nicely, and your connection and verbals are strong!
I really only have 2 suggestions, one about the stay and one about the handling:
About the stay: he prefers the sit over the down, so definitely just ask for the sit (he would do the down but immediately go back into the sit). Then when you lead out, be connected, praise… then release. He really loves agility and we want to make sure he doesn’t break the stay or launch into the sequence before you are ready and release him. And reward LOTS of stays – at this point in his career, you can reward the stays by throwing his toy back to him) on at least 50% of the reps.
About the handling: you might have been trying to help him more than he needed, which made it harder not easier. What I mean by that is you were running to each jump and pointing it out to him, almost hesitating at each one to be sure he got it. With his speed, that made it hard to get the full line because he would blast past you.
So to get it smoother – trust his commitment more and keep moving. You can run along the line near the jumps, saying your verbals and looking at him (connection). But you don’t need to show him each jump: your motion will do that. Think of it as a high speed lazy game: you just keep moving with connection, and he should find the line.
That should make it all feel a lot easier to handle his speed! And when that is comfy, you can spread the jumps out more which will give you even more time to add the crosses in.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Hi!
The stays are coming along nicely too, with good distance being added and more motion. Remember to keep these sessions short – he did well but then we starting to lose it because the session was very long and a lot of the same thing. We don’t want to drill it
>he needs treats to release the toy and sit – otherwise he would run around offering everything very fast:).>
He does love to offer a lot of things 🙂 I am very glad that he now loves treats! But let’s also teach him to release the toy without needing to see a treat trade. We don’t want the treat to become the cue, because then there will be conflict when you don’t have a treat or don’t want to use a treat. This will also add more impulse control on the toy, which is useful too because he loves toys so much!
Separately from the stay, here is how to work on getting the toy released without treats. I don’t post these as separate games in this class because not every dog needs the toy release yet:
Here is an explanation:
Tug tug tug tug tug (you can be sitting on the ground to teach this). Then put one hand on each side of the toy, right near his mouth (so both hands are involved and you will have a hand on either side of his mouth). And just hang out there, very passive, not pulling up, hands at low so his chin is not cranked up to the sky. He will let go! Then you can reward with more tug, or a treat, or a cue to do a behavior.You can see me do it here with baby Plot Twist (lots of Malinois in there, so very good at NOT giving the toy back). The goal of this session was to get an offered sit after the toy was released, but you don’t need the sit with Benny at first, it will be easy to add later.
You will see me reward with the toy a lot and also start to add impulse control by lifting it up and the dog is not allowed to jump up for it (because then they end up biting us by accident).
>Long curved lines – Benny needed some help to find the jump on the curved line. >
That might have been a product of two things:
– he had already been working for 10 minutes. Stays for that long will mentally leave not a lot left for other stuff 🙂 so be sure to do shorter sessions and give him more mental breaks. He seems like the type of pup who will continue to work even if his brain and body are tired, but that doesn’t mean he will continue to have high success.
– when you stopped with a high arm at 10:21, he didn’t connection or motion to support the line and came to you. Compare to when you stayed in motion on the other reps, he found it well. He will do even better with more connection too (lower arm and more looking at him) so you can be further from the jump as well.
Nice work!
Tracy
Hi, hope you had a great weekend!
He is getting the idea of the bow on the end of the board really well and it was great that you didn’t have to block his position at all!
2 things for next steps: forward focus on the reward (and not on you) and changing your position.
For forward focus: you can work the end position by itself and only release to the reward when he looks at it. That will help him look straight and not curl into you. You can sometimes reward in position by I would toss it to him so he is not watching you (for now, I think it is better to not reward in position because that will get him watching you more).
For your position: The most important thing at this stage is that you can place yourself anywhere as he is moving to position in the bow… except stopping at the end of the board with him 🙂 In this session, you consistently stopped at the end of the board next to him. That will become the cue for the behavior and we want to make sure that your position & motion are not the cue. So you can hang back and send him past you (which is why forward focus will be very important). Or you can move away laterally, or move past the end of the board for several more steps after he has stopping in position. Do that at a walk, first – we want him to be very successful and he might not be successful if you run past. Then if he can be very successful with you walking, then the next session has you jogging. If he can be successful with that: the next session can have running 🙂
He definitely does like the pinwheel! Really nice commitment! It will be easy enough to expand the distances and of course the speed will be easy too 🙂 so let’s focus on his mechanics more!
In these early stages, I recommend you dial back the speed and distance for now, because his footwork is not in place yet and he is hitting the middle bump a lot and sometimes the others too. We don’t want him to think that hitting the bumps/bars is good, so keep the wings in close and start him up close so he can really focus on getting over the bumps cleanly and not just going fast. Bearing in mind that he is still really young and very small, do you have a small bump to use (easier to get over without touching)? Maybe a quarter of a pool noodle?Great job!
Tracy
Hello! Hope you had a great weekend!
Strike a pose:
This went really well!
Really great rewards for the stay! And she is totally getting the in-then-out of the serps, starting that ‘side swipe’ of the target hand. That is ideal!You can start fading out the target in your hand and also try the threadle position as well.
You can also try a toy on the ground instead of the food bowl, that will be a fun challenge!>Do you think we should we try the threadle version? And if so, should I use the words I plan on using for the directionless verbals?>
Yes, and as soon as she has the threadle concept (probably within the first few reps), also yes to adding th verbals 🙂
Backing up:
>That goes back a lot farther back, to when Ziva was learning her backing up with SG.>
Yes, back in those SG days, we didn’t have the benefit of a super video camera in our pockets that allowed us to obsess on slow motion LOL!! So our mechanics have vastly improved since then (and the dogs are thankful for that 🙂 )
For the rocker board: to remind her that the board is the destination, start each session with her feet on the board, and just have her take one step off and one step back on. This session started with the board kind of fading into the background because it was there the whole time and you didn’t engage it at the beginning. When you did engage it by getting closer – much better backing up onto the board!
She is still a little curved, looking at your right hand, so mix in that left hand a lot. Try a whole session rewarding only from the left (I know, you are probably twitching over that suggestion LOL!)
Rather than adding more distant, keep going for straight backing up. And you can also flip the rocker board over so we can very gradually add movement. I don’t anticipate an issue with that, but I still like to proceed very carefully: prop up one end of the rocker board so the end closer to you is on the ground, and prop it up enough so it barely moves (use a lot of towels or something). Then start with her on the board, and lure her front feet off. See how she feels about stepping just 2 feet back on. If she is happy with it, you can progress to all 4 feet coming off the board then backing up onto it.
>At the end I did a treat toss so she could decompress a bit. I need to think of a word/phrase for that. >
I think ‘all done’ will work well! Just be sure to maintain interaction with her, so it doesn’t get paired with you walking away. We want that end of session moment to still have you in the picture so she doesn’t think of it as a withdrawal of attention or access to games/rewards.
Retrieve:
That is some impressively nice weather for this time of year!
When you are outdoors, be super engaged with the tugging! Talk to her more (not just the tugging cue), use both hands, etc. Note the difference in her engagement when you did that when she retrieved (super!), versus at the beginning when you were doing just one hand and mentally a little thinking ahead and not really engaging directly with her (distracted when you took the toy back).
The retrieve went great! Yay! It is fun to see the work you did transfer to the outdoors! You can keep adding this to games (take games outside as much as possible til the snow comes!). And a big click/treat to you for getting a few super successful reps and ending the session before her brain got tired 🙂You can see that lack of engagement at the beginning of the plank video too – you were just kind of swinging the toy with one hand, not really fully engaged. So make it a bigger interactive party (like when she brought the toy back) so you can compete with the environment. It is great info from her, that you have to fully engage during the play 🙂
She was happy to get on the plank, but because she was not fully engaged with the play before it, she was not that into it. I don’t think it is a proprioception thing, that is not a worry at all for her. It is just that the engagement needs to be amped up outside.
The model for it is the excitement you added when she brought the toy back: that was really fun and she loved it – and the environmental distractions disappeared. So when you initiate tugging before a game outside: 2 hands, praise, looking at her, moving around more, and not thinking ahead to what you want to do in the session 🙂
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
>I’m not sure what you mean by she’s not driving into it. That’s Reese’s personality in general. So, do you want more arousal first?>
She was happy to offer behavior on the perch when she got to it. What I would like to see is her saying “I gotta get back there!!” with a bit more speed and higher tail and muscle tone. She was eating the tossed treat but then slow coming back without a lot of excitement body language. My guess is that the cookie-only setup is way too predictable and the work versus motivation value of the treats was a little off balance (too much work challenge, not enough party time). So you can add the excitement and make things less predictable in a good way: more toy play before/during, sometimes not rewarding in position so when she pivots to your side you throw the toy to chase. That will be fun!
It is a precision behavior with you stationary, so she probably won’t run at you 🙂 but she can certainly grab the start cookie and trot back, tail high! Or she might surprise us and run back to the pivot. And that level of love for the lineup will help transfer it to new places where the environment adds challenges.
Looking at the video:
You can see more of the body language here that we want as she gets the start cookie for the pivoting! Volume dial with food plus a relatively stationary reward delivery will generally produce an arousal level which is semi-chill unless the dogs are insane for food. She is (thankfully) not insane for food, so to get more excitement you will want to run a few steps and have her chase you for the cookie. So it would be trick – run – cookie 🙂
>She’s just not a crazy dog at this point.>
We don’t want crazy dog 🙂 She thinks her way through puzzles and also can go plenty fast – that combo will come together VERY NICELY over the course of her maturity: she will lay on even more speed while maintaining the thoughtfulness. Sure, there will be ups and downs as you survive adolescence 🙂 but we can add more arousal now and she will be able to maintain her thoughtfulness and regulate the arousal.
Nice work here!
Tracy
Good morning!
>I did a few warmups today and that seemed to help with Rusty’s focus.>
Great! Keep adding in play and mental warmups before training to get the focus outside.
> I also think I have the issue of making an unfair comparison between Folger and Rusty. Sometimes I run her first. She has more speed and the look of ‘I got this’ as she probably should.>
This is entirely possible, that it feels much easier with Folger 🙂 I totally understand: it is very easy to run my adult dogs as compared to the youngster! With time and learning, Rusty will run really easily too!
On the video:
Sending to jump 1 looked strong at the beginning!WOWZA! His tunnel send and understanding to stay on the line on the first full run was fantastic!
The FC timing was great and even better on the 2nd rep. He showed that same understanding when you changed sides at the end – another perfectly timed FC thanks to using the distance!And you absolutely nailed the blind cross timing on that run, adding more motion to get into it without giving up the distance: lovely timing and he turned really well.
So I think all of the timing here was great! He understood the turn and then send beautifully to the next jump. Yay!
Only one suggestion would be that you probably don’t need to be as close to the middle jump on the FC or BC – I think he will commit to it independently, so you can be even closer to the jump after the cross to make it even easier to handle.
Excellent work!
Tracy
Good morning!
>He’s going to like Mountain Climbers! He gets this weird blissful expression on his face when he can climb up high.>
That is hilarious! Maybe he is thinking “I AM KING OF THE HILL!!!”
Looking at the wraps: I agree, your connection looked really strong and he is understanding the wraps. Super!!
>Do I have the distances too tight between the obstacles or was he maybe just tired and running a little slow?>
Both, perhaps! You can open up the distances and also try it in the morning when he is fresh. FastCat might take more out of him than we realize!
>I may be a little late on them and can give them out earlier. I’m still yeling. >
The timing will be easier when the distances are bigger so you can run more. That way he will have more speed and distance on the line, so you can show the transition into deceleration – that is when you will know if you are late or not 🙂
For the wrap verbals – try shortening them to just the first syllable of each word. That will make them even quieter! And I could hear you modulating the left & right verbals into a more medium volume most of the time, so definitely keep going with that! And the Go can be loud of course 🙂
Great job!
Tracy
Good morning! Great to see you here!!
This was a good choice of games to get back in action. He did really well finding the jumps!
>Tribute’s commitment was reasonably good and my food tosses were awful, >
Your food tosses were not awful at all! They were just fine 🙂 One thing I notice is that he was not sure when he should be looking for the jumps or for the treats, so he started looking at you a bit to watch for the treat through. Easy adjustment to smooth that out: use a ‘get it’ marker before you through the treat, so he knows that the treat is coming now and he can look ahead for it.
Great job here! You can move to the next levels of this game!
Have fun 🙂
TracyHi!
Good news about the wing wrap game, bummer about the video! But I am glad it went well 🙂 And he is retrieving the toy really well, that makes your life a lot easier 🙂
The turn aways are going well – the lap turn (where you face him) was really easy and looked great.
For the tandem turns – adding deceleration before the cue sets it up really well. When you did not decelerate, he was surprised about the cue and turned towards you (or ran to the prop, thinking it was a straight line cue).
So as he is on his way towards you, slow down and drop your hands into a visible position (empty hands worked better for him than the toy in your hand). Then while remaining decelerated – turn him away. I think he did best when he could see both hands, so that is something to use more consistently: one hand was not as obvious to him.
Nice work here!
Tracy
Hi!
The stay is going really well!!! You are adding more distance and duration really well, both at the beginning and with the jump at the end.
The stay in front of the barrel was very easy for him! You don’t need to reward the sit immediately – he was moving a bit when you handed a cookie. So you can reward only for the release, of when you throw a reward back to him.
Staying in front of the jump was harder – I am not sure if it was because the jump is more exciting, or because it was later in the session and his brain was tired 🙂 or both! So try the stay in front of the jump at the beginning of the session next time and see how he does.
He was not quite ready for you to run away when he was in front of the jump so walking away is good for now – you will be able to gradually add more of your speed to the lead out.
You can now add some praise so he doesn’t anticipate the release: lead out, stop, connect, praise… then release or reward.
The sequences went really well! He is driving out of the tunnel under the dog walk brilliantly so you can play with adding more layering: can he find that jump with you all the way near the start barrel, on the other side of the dog walk? I bet he can! You will want to start right next to the barrel so there is no send, and that way you can really set up good distance.
Great job here!
Tracy
Hi!
I totally agree, always good to work at trials! He is doing great! He was such a good boy, off leash, with all of the distractions behind him!
Head turns:
He is gtting the idea for sure! For the handler mechanics (which is he hardest part :)) Line him up at your side each time, to start each rep. That will make for a nice, clean rep and then the hand cues will be consistent.
So on each rep: you will get 2 wraps in a row. If he starts on your left side, you will send to the upright with your left hand. Then as he wraps it the first time, you will use the left hand to get his attention then turn him away. Then after the reward, line him up at your left side again (or switch to your right side, which means the right hand sends and turns him away).
Get out:
Looking great! He was so snappy with his responses! When you toss the start cookie, no need to wait for him: you can start moving even if you get ahead – that will show him the cue with you way ahead!And he dragged his leash her but still had perfect attention as if he was off leash. GOOD BOY!!!
Strike a pose:
>Don’t tell the competitors because I don’t think I was supposed to have treats in that ring.>
Ha! I won’t tell anyone LOL!
He looked really strong here too. The next step is to have a reward target on the ground (like an empty food bowl to drop the treat into) so you don’t have to reward from your hand.
And he is ready for you to work the threadle version of this game too!
>He did release himself a little I think on the stays.
Yes, the stay was harder: I think he was anticipating the release. So you can go to the strike a pose position including having your hand out – then throw a reward back to him for the stay 🙂
>And I tried to release him before showing him the touch target so he would release on my verbal instead of when I put my hand down.>
>I noticed that! Yay! You were really strong about not releasing at the same time as the hand moving.
Stays:
He did well here too. You had a lot of distance on these, especially the last one! Looking great in all of these games! He was really locking into the stay when you did *not* reward the sit at the beginning. He was at his best when you did not reward immediately, but rewarded after the release or when you tossed the treat back. When you rewarded the sit, he would often move right away – many dogs think the reward is the end, so they move. So – no need to reward for getting into the sit 🙂
Great job here! Have a blast in Germany!!!!
Tracy
