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No worries! There is SO MUCH to remember in the moment when training young dogs… I don’t remember most of it LOL so I have gone to writing it down in advance or after each turn. I either text it to myself, or write it on a post it note 🙂 And sometimes I write it on my hand LOL!! That helps me plan and more importantly… REMEMBER what the heck I am going to do 🙂
Have fun! Keep me posted!
Tracy
Hi!
>Here is the diamond we did not do the very last exercise because Diane was tired.>
That is relatable LOL! There is a lot of running on this one!!! It went really well 🙂
At the beginning, you were doing FCs not BCs. Your conenction was lovely and his commitment/turns looked great! I love how he drives away from you to get to the next wing after each cross!
To get the blinds instead of the FCs, you can remind your feet to turn away from him (towards the next wing) rather than towards him. And definitely keep the clear connection, that worked great!
He was not quite as sure about the race tracks around the wings, but I think that was more about connection and not about the wings. You were pointing ahead to each wing, which blocks connection and turns your shoulders away from the line so he looks up at you.
You can see it at 1:18 between the orange wing and the blue wing – you were pointing ahead and looking ahead, which almost pulled him off the line. Getting closer to the wings helped, but you can get the distance you wanted by using more connection and less arms: your dog-side arm can be pointed back and down to his nose, or you can just use your arms to run . With both of these, the connection to his eyes will turn your shoulders to the line, which will support his commitment.
There was one blooper at 1:59 where he ended up behind you – after exiting the wing you pointed forward to the tunnel entry you wanted but that blocked connection and looked like the beginning of a blind, which he executed beautifully 🙂 That is another spot to keep your arm low and pointing to his nose, and looking back at him so he sees the line of your shoulders.
That is what you did at 2:17 and it was lovely!Great job here!
Tracy
Hi! He did really well here! What is the distance? We can keep track and keep adjusting as his skills develop. Were these 4 inch bars? You can try this at 6 inches now 🙂
He was hilarious at :06 where he tried to move into his down, with his foot draped on the bar LOL Since we know that the down is his preferred position but also we don’t want the down on the jump grids: if he moves into the down, you can lure him up with a cookie (he might not like being lifted up, and he is not necessarily wrong about the down…)
He had one broken stay at :31, it looks like he thought the release was you connecting. So stay connected as you lead out, then praise before you release so he doesn’t think the release is anything different than the word 🙂
The angled jumps were not visually hard for him, but I think the distances might have ended up being too big – he added a stride between jump 1 and 2. So you can shorten up the distance a little so he bounces. Ticking the first bar on the last one might have been him being a shade too far back like you mentioned, or fatigue from his exciting day 🙂
Great job here!!
Tracy
Hi! His commitment looked really strong here!
On the tight blinds at the wing, you were actually doing reverse spins (FC/BC combos) rather than true blinds. He read them well and your handling/reinforcement looked great! They are a useful skill for sure. You can also work the true blinds, by reminding your feet to turn away from him instead of towards him.
The first race track looked awesome! Fast and connected, great commitment!
On the 2nd race track: you had a little break in connection at: 53 by looking ahead to the furthest wing, which pulled him off the line. You got closer on the next rep but I bet you can get him to work at more of a distance by ramping up your connection, more like what you did when he was on your left.
On the last run where you put it all together: the wraps looked good and the race track on your left was great! Note how connected you were, and how he had no questions about staying out on the line. You didn’t need to use your arm much at all, and you also didn’t need to get close to the wings. Super!!
Great job!
TracyHi!
The set point is going really well! I think the next step is to have you start moving faster after the release, building up having you running 🙂 The form is looking good! And you can also go to the 3 jump grip that is posted, if you haven’t done it yet 🙂
>Some broken start lines probably for the same reason as before.>
Yes, and it is both hilarious and brilliant. The broken stays were at about step 10! And most of your releases were at step 10 LOL!! At :48 you had one rep where you had more steps before the release and that was great. You can keep mixing it up 🙂
On the tunnel exits:
The timing of the tunnel cue and the wrap cue after it were both really good! Adding the turn cue for the tunnel exit when he is still 6 feet away from entering was good- he is naturally is turning towards you on the exit, probably because of where he saw you last, and we want to get him accelerating straight even more.You can make the wraps, left/right and GO sound more different (and look different). Right now they are all similar sounding in terms of volume and rhythm, which can make it harder for him to know which one you want.
The wraps can be super quiet, almost whispered 🙂 The left/right verbals can be at a conversational volume and more drawn out, and even sound like a question: leehft? riiiiight? And the GO can be SUPER loud: GOOO! GOOO! And shoulder turn/not as much motion will help get the turns. where big acceleration can help cue the GO:
Sending him around the start wing from further away and letting him see big acceleration like at :43 and :55 helped him exit straighter for sure! And as he exits the tunnel, keeping your arm down so he can see connection will help him stay out on the line – when you did that, he found the wing nicely (like at 2:11 and 2:27)! When your arm was up high and blocking connection (like at 1:49), your shoulders ended up pointing to the other side of the wing so he was not sure where to go.
On the next session, you can add more distance by moving the wings on the side of the tunnel even further away 🙂
Great job here!
TracyHi!
I think what was happening here was motion was overriding the verbal, so you were getting extra tunnels.
When you wanted the tunnel (like at :17 and :27 for example), you had motion that turned towards the tunnel. After that – when you wanted the wrap, you were turning towards the tunnel too… so the motion facing the tunnel overrode the verbal. Even when you were holding his collar longer so he could hear the verbal several times before moving, you turned towards the tunnel when you released him to move (:35 and :54 for example). Then I think he was guessing a bit, because the motion to the tunnel was not the cue so I think he was trying to figure out what was the cue.
On the other side, and on the successful wraps on the first side, you were either completely stationary or even turned a little away (like part way through a front cross). So when you re-visit this, definitely hold him so he hears the verbal a few time… then be careful when you let him go 🙂 For the wrap, you can do a FC or don’t move at all, but be careful not to turn and face the tunnel 🙂
Nice work!
Tracy
Hi!
This session went well! She has lovely commitment (more on the tunnel commitment below) and found the jump easily, every time, on both sides. SUPER!!She didn’t always take the start tunnel when you were leading out:
She did well with you stopping then indicating for her to focus forward on the tunnel entry – so you can do that on all the lateral lead outs at this point, since she is doing so well with the skill! As you do it, you can be slightly agnled towards the line you want, so your shoulders support the line. When you are pretty lateral like at 1:49, she was not as sure because your shoulders were slightly turned away. So for now, a little bit of angling yourself torwards the line will help and as she solidifies the skill with more experience, you can angle towards the line less and less.When you don’t cue the forward focus (:56 for example) she releases towards you, especially when you were not angled towards the line. She had a couple of questions, like when you were angled more towards the wing there at :56 and the position and physical cue overrode the verbal (you can reward in those moments and try not to mark it as wrong… because most of the time, the pups are correct) Same thing happened at 1:12 but not how she found the tunnel nicely when you angled towards it at 1:15. Here are some visuals for ya:
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1iG5U5_uFpGfPJ5zZQmow5-eOo0bjpR_kMB8FGGW76IQ/edit?usp=sharing
On this game, you can add your go and jump verbals, and more of your motion (like getting way ahead, or getting close to the tunnel so she drives ahead).
> I did the find the jump exercise with the jump at 15’ from the tunnel (in hindsight, could have even started at 17-18’ and I think still have had pretty good success).>
Absolutely! You can totally expand the distance, especially if you mainly run in UKI… 18 feet will feel short 🙂
And because we are trying to prevent her from doing crazy things to her body, you can totally place the reward for now, rather than throw. Use a big huge reward that is easy to scoop up when she is running, or even the Treat n Train so she decelerates. When you are way ahead and on a line close to her, you can have her get the reward from your hand. All this can help her hopefully not splat herself when getting the reward – she is not doing anything crazy with her body when she is doing the wing/tunnel/jump, but the reward grabbing is where she might be doing nutty things.
> however there are 2 minutes of her having a meltdown about the FedEx guy towards the end. You don’t have to watch the whole 2 minutes worth if you think that once you’ve seen 20 seconds of a meltdown you’ve seen plenty.>
I had to watch of course 🙂
I admit that when you mentioned a meltdown, I expected FAR WORSE. She came back and was able to come out of it really quickly.> she did refocus well for that one rep so definitely was time to call it quits then.>
Yes, that was good dog training!
> Meltdown was maybe less dramatic than a few months ago, but still a meltdown I don’t really want her having in public or where she doesn’t have a fence stopping her access to the creepy thing.>
Did you notice the FedEx guy starting running after she came back the first time at about 2:33? Maybe he thought he was helping by hurrying but I was like DUDE YOU ARE NOT HELPING hahahaha I do like how he greeted her with a regular human voice, that does help.
Anyway – part of this is context. A strange person coming to your driveway then to your house? That is a trigger for most dogs – sudden appearances are HARD especially for adolescent dogs. Country living means they don’t get a ton of regular exposure to these things. Add in the adrenaline/arousal of the training session, and you might be getting a bigger response than normal?
When you see it happening and also when she comes to you, you can limit her options for leaving: when working outside, maybe have a light leash in your pocket you can clip on, so you can keep her close to do the food games, treat tosses into the grass, and maybe even a station behavior. If I remember correctly, she stations nicely 🙂 so you can develop an outdoor station, build a reward history… then when you see FedEx arriving, head over to it, clip on a leash, and do pattern game stuff. Or if you are surprised and she responds before you can gather her up, call her back like you did and then gather her up so she can’t leave again.
Have you seen this happen in other places? Usually the more crowded the place, the less it will happen because their brains cannot prioritize one stimulus enough to be worried about it.
But also, adolescent brains do crazy things! So you might see intermittent meltdowns and that is also pretty normal – but we can still help them by limiting off leash access til the dogs are a bit older, having access to amazing treats at all times, working pattern games *everywhere* all the time, so when we need to use them, they are incredibly fluent. My 2 year old Croatian Sheepdog mix and my 14 month old Malinois mix both had heightened responses to weird people appearing (especially men) in their early adolescence. But using these tools to get them through those early times with limited meltdowns helped enormously… neither dog has had any trouble in months.
For the Croatian mix, I think he had more generalized anxiety so I put him on a probiotic designed to help with that. I don’t thinks Beat has any generalized anxiety issues, she might be more like my Mali mix, just a teenager 🙂
And for both dogs, I used a lot of social learning too: any time there was a tiny possibility of exposure to a trigger, they were always paired with a dog who absolutely would NOT trigger (one of the Whippets, who appear to never have meltdowns about anything ever, except meals being late LOL!) Social learning is powerful, so do you have a dog that she can be paired with? If not, does she have any dog friends you can pair her with in potentially challenging situations? My whippets often serve as helpers for dogs who might have questions (especially adolescents) and it is really fascinating to see social learning).
Social learning also works in reverse, so if she has housemates or dog friends who might trigger, try to avoid hanging out with them for now in potentially triggering situations.
Nice work with both the training and the recovery from the FedEx dude! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
The discomfort of today leads to the success of tomorrow 🙂
>Ok angle the jump and the toy goes on landing or after landing? And am I angling it so that if I am dog on left and she’s moving to my right it the left wing the farther wing part or the closer wing part?>
Here is what I want you to do:
using the same exact setup you had in the previous video, where she sent to the barrel on your left and the left was your serp arm, set it up as a true serp, plan your line of motion (close to the jump) then place the reward on the ground. Thenangle the jump: the wing closer to the reward gets moved closer to where you had the camera. The wing closer to the start barrel gets closer to you. The jump is now perpendicular to your line (your line and the barrel and the reward remain unchanged). When you send her around the barrel, she exits and basically see a front side of a jump with you still doing the serp to the toy.it will look like this:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1b6iyjH5R6DMxshGGxkM4H6ngreC02k59-vHDAFxVCwk/edit?usp=sharingLet me know how it goes!
Tracy
Hi!
>Yesterday, the toy was stationary. Tonight I did the angled jumps for the ladder and had the toy moving.>
This was an interesting session because he was changing what doing here: He started off with jumping form from the rear but then by the last rep he went to galloping which was more off his front. I don’t think the distance or angled jumps were hard for him (we would have seen that on the first rep) so either it was a bit of fatigue or reward needs to be further/moving faster, or the grid needs to be a little more challenging, or all of the above 🙂 I think using the moving target and doing 2 reps at 2 inches higher than the height here (this looks like 6″, so try it at 8″) and then take a break after 2 reps – then we see what happens 🙂
>I hope I “built” that correctly – I am very spatially challenged. For anything more than a ladder, I usually have Terry build it.>
Looks good to me! I bought a cheap small measuring wheel for easy measuring of distances – it lives outside with the jumps LOL! And makes things a lot easier because I don’t have to rely on my spatial awareness or the length of my footsteps 🙂
>The tight BC and the racetrack. I only did the one wing on the BC and will add on next time.>
He did really well reading the handling and side changes, and driving around the race track 🙂 And you were great about emphasizing the connection on the exit of the blind.
As you work the blinds, remember to keep moving out of the blinds, not stopping to deliver the rewards. Having him chase you out of the blind will help him drive through the turns, even when you are late 🙂 Speaking of late:
> I’m trying to figure out what a tight turn looks like for him – it won’t look like Dellin’s.>
He will have really nice turns! But with his stride length and size, the timing has to be early, possibly earlier’s than Dellin’s timing needs. In this case, the cues begin when he has exited the tunnel, so he fully sees the blind underway before he reaches the halfway point between the tunnel exit and the wing. That includes the verbal, but also decelerating into the blind and beginning the side change. Ideally, the blind cross is finished and re-connected before he arrives at the wing: that is when we will see what his turns look like. The timing was late here, so he was wide because as a youngster, he was very much following the cues and not anticipating 🙂
At :39 and :52 for example – the blind started just before he reached the wing and there was no change of motion to predict it so he was wide. But he changed sides immediately when he saw the new connection!
At :56 you said “left” at exactly the correct time – he had just exited the tunnel. You can keep saying it (in a long drawn out was) as you decel and start the blind at basically the same time as you start saying it. He didn’t see the blind starting til he was about a stride from the wing, so he was a little wide here too.
My prediction for his future timing is that his cues will begin no later than when he is in the air of the previous jump so when he lands, he already sees/hears the info flowing.
He did really well with the race tracks too – easy and fun fun fun!!
>I did not use directionals on the race track part – jumps like that would be a sprinkler and he has not been introduced to that yet.>
I think he is pretty ready for you to add those: since he is doing the behavior, you can ‘name’ it with the sprinkler noise (especially on the easier side).
> Counterclockwise was more difficult – I’m not sure if he’s looking at the toy on that first rep or what.>
It is possible that the counterclockwise was harder because it was first and he was sorting it out, or that you had your arms locked – you can try shoving the toy in your pocket and running with bent/moving sprinter arms, and see what he does. And try clockwise first next time to see if it is still easier.
Great job here!
Tracy
Hi!
Good job staying in motion here, that is totally what we want. Yay!She had a couple of questions about whether she should go to the barrel or to the wing of the jump at :21 and :26. It happened when you were looking ahead to the barrel, which turned your shoulders to the wing of the jump so that is where she went. Compare to :31 and especially at 1:00 and the reps after it where you looked at her more so she went to the barrel perfectly!
> Not sure if this is ok but I simply can’t put a reward down on this context. I’m sort of over the fight. Same for a food bowl>
What is the fight? Is she passing the jump to go to the reward? That is not a skill I recommend skipping (you will want to be able to place a reward) so angling the jump is the answer -angle it a full 90 degrees if you need to, so it is facing her as she exits the barrel. The reward will be on the serp line, then you gradually angle it back to the flat position it was here. You can also use a target (like a plastic lid) as an interim reward target – might be less stimulating than a toy or food bowl.
> but if I give the toy after it’s not on the right line for the next part “ the go back out” on a serp>
Correct, the reward from your hand is pulling in across you and not setting what the next line, and when you toss it she is cranking herself to get it. Plus she is looking at the toy not at the jump or line by the end of the session here, which was causing her to lose her footwork mechanics as you added speed at the end.
I think a reward or target on the ground and a very angled jump should get it to happen without any fighting with her. Let me know!
Nice work here!
TracyHi!
>Whippets are interesting!>
They are! And addictive!
> I had to play with the tunnel and re train a straight tunnel even though we have done it a million times. I bought a new toy I could throw when she exited to get her excited.>
Was she avoiding it? Maybe she got an ouchie from it, or maybe she grew and had to re-learn how to drop her head to get into it? She definitely liked the toy here – you can throw it when you cue the straight line exit.
> Her turns aren’t tight out of the tunnel but I’m happy with her progress.>
It is possible your cues are late 🤔🤣😂 On this video, the right turns cues (physical and verbal) happened after she got into the tunnel, which means she won’t be able to respond til she exits. Try to give her the verbal and shoulder turn to the new line when she can see/hear it, at least 5 feet before she enters the tunnel. That will tighten up the turns nicely! Her turns and lines on the wings look great! You can spread the distances out even more to get even more speed 🙂
>Snap…. She’s got stuff going on but we cannot seem to figure out exactly why she has pain. Vets have not been helpful so we rest. I’m still hopeful. She’s a fun agility and flyball dog.>
Poor girlie! I hope you find an easy answer or it just resolves by itself. She really is a good girl!!
Nice work here!
TracyHi!
He did great here and I am glad you didn’t run into the tree at the beginning – it was like a layering exercise LOL!!
Angling the setup gave him more room in general and it allowed him to really accelerate to the jump. Love it! He was perfect about finding it from behind you
On the next session, start very close to the wing and stay there til he exits, so he drives way ahead. And then you can add in the rear crosses (which is the next wind in your hair game :)) He is ready!
> realized when I was editing that I just turned instead of doing the front. I think I still threw it a bit late a couple of the times but he was good about giving it back!>
Starting with the post turn didnt make a difference when you sent him from your right side (he still had a straight line to the jump).When you switched to starting him on your left, it does set the line differently because it set him on the parallel path to the backside (which is why it looks like he went wide, but he was being a good boy!). That affected the timing of the toy throw like at 1:20 and 2:00 where you had to wait for him to look at the correct side of the jump before throwing. So you can decide on post turn or FC on the wing based on where you think he will be when he exits: looking at the front of the jump, or at the backside of the jump.
Great job here!
TracyHi!
>7 1/2′ apart, 1st jump at 6″, 2nd jump at 10″. Session included several “catches” and some tug, release, tug again. I only put the 4 jump reps in the video. What do you think?>
I think her form is looking good, overall! The moving target definitely helps her with a more rounded form and she is holding her stay nicely too 🙂
> Ticked the last bar on the last rep…… Getting tired? Figuring stuff out? 4 reps didn’t seem like too many, but she does put a lot of energy into tug! Maybe too much tug!?>
I agree that 4 reps doesn’t seem like that many, but my opinion maybe be formed by working smaller breeds. Maybe a giant breed does need fewer reps and more breaks in between – she might have been ‘feeling the burn’ and didn’t get enough push from the rear on the last rep. I watched it a bunch and compared to the other reps, but I didn’t really see anything different that caused it. Maybe the toy was a little closer to her? But that didn’t seem significant. So you can try doing 2 reps, then giving her a breal of several minutes. Then come back and do a couple more reps.
I also notice that she tends towards the rollback sit when you are lining her up at the beginning. You can work on getting a tuck sit, as this might strengthen her core which will also extend her endurance for jumping. There are lots of ways to do it – I like to have the dog’s front feet on a low target, and get the pup to sit by bringing the hind in close to the front and not moving the front feet 🙂 Usually a cookie above the nose helps the front end not move LOL
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Good morning!
>My worst thing. I was a CPA. Predictable was good! >
Ha! Yes, predictable is good when you are a CPA!
>I’m not surprised he counts.>
Dogs are just brilliant, BCs are extra brilliant. They all have us well-trained LOL and they can predict what we do very easily LOL
>Set Point – What was the distance between the jumps? – I used 6’3″>
Perfect!
>he elevated like a monkey LOL!!! – He loves the bad throws but I will try to get those under control.>
He totally was having a good time with the crazy throws but his dance moves were a little funky 🙂
>As I post more, please don’t think I’m ignoring your advice. I got through Week 3 before finally starting to edit videos. Procrastination kills.>
No worries! Good for you to already being through week 3!!!
Tracy
Hi!
>For class last night, we started with one run without anyone “in the ring”, then added bar setters and a judge. You’ll see how distracted he was in video 2 and 3.>
These videos were helpful! Yes, basically, you can think of it as gradually introducing distractions and as you do that: the reinforcement level needs to increase a lot in the moment (rather than at the end of the course) and also, the difficulty of the behaviors you ask for should get easier (don’t ask for the weaves or contacts yet, and ask for 12″ jumps not 16″).
So as one thing gets harder, everything else gets easier and more reinforcing at first.
In general, you can reward more on course. The rewards tend to happen at the very end, and it was generally one cookie. You can reward a lot more within each sequence, and make it really engaging when you reward: praise, multiple fun cookies, and a prolonged length of the reinforcement moment. Having all of the behaviors of agility being more reinforcing can really help tune out distractions. And, if something goes wrong… either reward if you stop or keep going – at the beginning of the first video, he was set up a bit too close to the bar and needed more motion to the utnnel, so he hit the bar. By the time he exited the tunnel, you had turned your back on him which can be deflating/punishing. He got a reward, I think, on the way back to start, but it will be more motivating if you just keep going.
And when adding distractions, only ask for behaviors that he can nail with no problem without distractions. He had trouble with the weaves and a-frame in video 1, so he was not ready for those behaviors to be done with distractions. And when he does those, reward them! He had a lot of attempts at the weaves, lots of failure, but no rewards.
> I’ve watched them a couple times and wonder if we should reduce the distractions some until he does better. Like maybe ring crew but no judge. Or judge stands still. or?>
Yes, it was really hard when they all walked out at the same time! So you can have one person as ring crew, then build it up from there: 2 people, then add a stationary judge, then a moving judge, the a leash running, etc. And while people are moving around, you can be doing tricks-for-treats, and also practicing leash-off-engagement-on, so you can take his leash off and he sticks with you. And as he is running the course: don’t fix handling errors (keep going!) and don’t ask for hard obstacles yet.
As you build up distractions in the ring, keep an eye on the rate of reinforcement: how many rewards, versus how many failures? You will want him to be at about 90% rate of success, meaning he has very few failures. I use that 2 Failure Rule to make sure the rate stays high: if he fails twice, I make it easier and reward simpler behaviors.
Eventually we will ask him to run courses with distractions in the ring and without cookies in the ring, but for now I htink he needs all the cookies in the ring 🙂
Nice work here! Let me know how he does with fewer distractions in the ring!
Tracy
