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Good morning!
>>So we didn’t make it to try outs. I’m bummed but also know it was the right decision. >>
It is a bummer but I hopefully you are feeling relief in knowing you made the right decision.
>>1. He is not going outside with anyone but Gibbs and Prue at the moment. He doesn’t display the same stalking chasing behavior with them that he does with Marky and Tic.>>
Great! No more rehearsals!
>> one thing he needs to do is stop turning around in front of Marky or Tic and staring them down, then waiting for them to move so he can chase. I don’t mind them running together but it’s the hard stare then chase and grab at the scruff that needs to stop.>>
Yes, that is a behavior that would be nice to stop! He might have to be on a leash for a while as you try to shift the behavior. The leash and being with you will let you reward behavior you want (like walking at your side) and prevent rehearsal of the unwanted behavior. Even if you can call him out of the unwanted behavior, the rehearsal of it is keeping those neural pathways finely tuned. Stopped the rehearsal will begin to help those pathways whither away.
>>2. Keep working on my outside the ring behavior. What I need is something(s) concrete that I can do with him that helps refocus him. >>He might need a combination of distance from the ring (the area at RSCR is possibly too small for him, no place to go to avoid being right next to the ring) and at a big distance is where you do most of your warm up and waiting. Ideally there is a sweet spot of distance where he can actually eat and play tug, because the games can be played there. The Hunt arena is Raleigh is MUCH bigger so might work!
Then as you get closer to the ring, something like standing/sitting on a bed or board or something can be a good waiting spot. That way he can have something to do and just hang out with you. The hand touch is his best ‘trick’ when he is close to the ring, so you can do some hand touch then tugging before you go in, and see how it goes.
And keep working the food value in training – if you slip food rewards into work (like do a short sequence, deliver some food, then tug) you will find the he becomes more and more interested in eating food.
Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
This is a challenging setup for sure LOL!
>>especially my 14-15 year old who’s talking here (her favorite thing at this point in her life) is intentional as that kind of barking/staring pressure just outside the ring is something that he doesn’t appreciate and is getting better at just ignoring.>>
That is why we place these games in a controlled environment 🙂 It provides the opportunity for arousal regulation games like this. It might appear like a stay game but it is really all about the arousal regulation needed when he is in more of a trial-like arousal state. The crazy lead out with the other dogs barking definitely changed his internal state (he almost broke his stay on the first rep) but then he was great!
And I agree that for now, he is an all-business dog as you lead out (at trials). You might find that as he gets more experienced, you can do the pink panther at a trial. The reason to do this is because the dogs go faster LOL! We time the difference on courses in training or when there are re-runs at a trial and the pink panther crazy lead out always gets more speed. I don’t ask for it early on because I don’t want to try it if the dog might not be able to hold the stay.
>>I have moved toward taking my leash off as soon as I enter the ring and do really like how he’s responded to that.>>
I personally prefer that too… but also if you do AKC, I believe it is not legal to do that. So you can tweak it to be head to the first jump, the leash off, then line up.
>>am definitely someone who in the past has asked the person coming in after me to “give us some space on the Startline” if the lineup is right in front of where they are anxiously waiting to come in – especially when I plan a longer lead out. And, in the past I’ve also asked them to let me get my leash on before coming in – especially when the course ends close to where it starts. There haven’t actually been any issues with that but it tends to worry me to have him coming in hot and not know how the other dog might react to that.>>
Yes, that whole Facebook uproar was a little silly. If there is a dog right behind mine at the start (especially a young dog!) then yes, I see no problem asking them to move back. And for young dogs, it is fine to tell the net person “hey this is a baby dog, first trials, give me a little space”.
I think the issue that blew up on social media was poor communicated and a couple of people trying to make things black and white in a situation where things are NOT black and white. The main issue as I understand it is that people do it for the entire career of the dog and also are trialing dogs that are not functioning well in the trial environment. This doesn’t apply to you and Ripley 🙂 I don’t think anything will change and there won’t be faults called, nothing to worry about.
Great job here!
TracyGood morning!
>>When she does not want to stop whatever we/she are/is doing! She will not go to the cato board at such a time. She recognizes all the situations where i might leash her up, except getting cornered in an enclosed space,>>
This is where the plan begins! If getting leashed up predicts the end of the activity, it also can predict the end of the access to reinforcement and also possibly predict that undesirable things will happen next (like going in a crate).
So we need to un-pair the leash from being finished. You can start with simple stuff like praising her, picking up the leash, then going back to do more agility for rewards in the ring. And gradually you can work up to putting the leash on, but still mixing in a LOT of taking it off again and going back to do more stuff. That will hopefully helping her past avoiding the leash being put on at the end of a run
You can also add recalls away from or out of activities she is enjoying – then reward and send her back to the activities (eventually putting the leash on gets built in too).
Two other things to build value for being leashed:
– shape her to put her head into a martingale collar or harness, so it is more of a fun trick to get leashed up
– do lots of end of run games where getting the leash involved means access to the BEST reinforcement. She loves balls, so it can be something like doing a sequence, get a cookie, get leashed up, get a ball!I would do all of these because they all hit on different aspects of the behavior. And avoid having her off leash in bog open spaces (like big agility rings) into she has more value for coming back (and so there are no ‘catch me’ games happening).
Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
I see what you mean about not having a stay yet – she is offering the sit but also offering a whole lot of other things LOL! I think she has more value for a down behavior (the value might be trained or intrinsic or both) then she gets a little frustrated when the down is not rewarded (or, you try to click the sit and she moves into the down as you click).A couple of ideas for you:
– to help her understand it is not a down, you can shape a sit on a small square platform where she has room to sit but not to lie down. That can help her to offer the sit more and hold it longer. Feeding her in position on the platform might be useful too.
– you can do sessions where you are only clicking the sit and not waiting for any duration. That can help isolate the it behavior.
– you can try it sitting down instead of standing up, because then she might be less likely to leap up when you are sitting in a chair.The lap turns are looking really strong! Only one suggestion is to keep your feet together longer rather than step back with your foot while she is still several feet away from you. Keep your feet together until she is within a couple of inches of your hand, then move the hand and foot together like at 2:09. That will set up a snappy turn and she will stay on a tighter line towards you. Stepping back too early will widen her line, and when a jump is added it might look too much like a throwback cue.
Tandems are going well too – when you have more room, you can be more upright for the first part of the tandem (moving away from her) and then bend down a little to get her attention on your hands, then turn her away.
And you can definitely add the prop to both of these now 🙂
Great job!
Hi!
This is a hard skill and he was driving ahead really well!
I think part of the question he had was that you were quicker to change sides when you wanted the right turn:
At 1:02 as he was arriving at the prop, you were already visible on the new side – same at 1:16!Comparing that to the left turn reps at the beginning, like at :16 and :29 and :43- you were not as visible on the new side when he arrived at the prop. You were just beginning to cut in behind him, so his decision to turn right had already been made.
Plus, he might be a bit of a righty!
So to get the left turns, give yourself a little more distance so you are tarting further from the prop. In this setup, you and Venture can start up against the back fence, but move the prop 4 or 5 feet towards the camera. Then, as soon as he gets ahead of you, cut in behind in to create the left turn, so it will be wicked early 🙂 You might end up turning him before he arrives at the prop and that is fine! He would still get rewarded.
So try it as early as possible, with the goal being that you are fully on the new side when he is still one stride for the prop. That should help jump start the left turns.
Let me know how he does! The right turns are looking great so getting you across the RC line sooner on the left turns should help him out 🙂
Nice work!
TracyHi!
>>Might have gone too long in this session with Roux. She is 8 months.?>>
Possibly! It depends on how long she had between sessions to rest. I think her reluctance to drive ahed in the last game was not a tired issue, I think it was a ring gate issue (see below).
The tunnel game is looking really strong turning to her left to enter the tunnel! Turning to her right was harder so tarting a little closer will help her start off with good reps. She figured it out nicely! But I think you ended up getting too far away from the tunnel entry on the right turns, because she offered a couple of left turns to the entry of the tunnel closer to her. So for the left turns, I bet you can be further away. But on the right turns, stay very close so she can be very successful (be sure to read the post about the 2 failure rule).
My only suggestion is to hold her collar and stay saying tunnel, so she can process it before she starts to move. This will be especially helpful on the right turn entry.
Have you decided what verbal you want to use for the tunnel threadle side of the tunnel? I use “kiss kiss” for that 🙂 And adding the verbal will help her differentiate which side you want.
The leg bumps were fun for her! She is ready for you start her on one side and have the toy all the way out past the other side of you, so she can hop over both of your legs.
She wants to go super fast through the ladder so I was happy to see her slow down to stat balanced. To help her stay balanced and not look at you, you can put an empty food bowl out 4 or 5 feet past the exit of the ladder, so she can trot through and use it as a target (rather than look up at you) as she is getting towards the end of the ladder. Then you can toss a treat into it when she exits the ladder.
Wrapping the stool looked good! Nice job with the verbals. She was also great with the decel and pivot in the middle, showing some really nice impulse control on the toy! Just remember to decel pretty early (right after she exits the stool) to get the tightest turns there. She also was SUPER with the distraction of people talking and dog barking in the background!
She did a good job ignoring the toy on the ground – you noted in the video that she wasn’t really driving to it. I totally see what you mean! She was fastest to it when you threw it before starting the rep, but then she was not really racing ahead of you. Try it again when it is not right in front of a gate – it is possible she was decelerating because she didn’t want to accelerate into the gate (that makes sense to me LOL!) In the ring you were in, you can go lengthwise so the toy was about 15 feet or more away from the ring gating, so she can accelerate to it without the gate causing her to put on the brakes.
Great job here!!
Tracy
Hi!
Hooray for good weather and going outdoors! This looked great – he drove ahead beautifully on the first rep (he fell on his head on the second rep so you won) then he completely left you in the dust on the 3rd rep LOL!!! Good boy 🙂 You can add the GO GO GO verbal here too, to help prepare him for driving ahed on a jump line (eventually :))
While the weather is still good, try the turn and burn around a barrel outside and see how he does! It will give you more room to run.
>>I found that I needed to not have any treats on me for him to be interested in the toy. >>
That is great for now! He can do toy-only sessions or have the treats really far away, so he can focus on the toy. Over time it will be easier to have treats in your hands or pockets.
>>I also had to try a few toys to see which one was of interest to him.>>
Good job finding the motivating toy – he really seemed to love it!
>>Teagan jumps up a lot, grabbing at things in my hands and counter surfing. >>
In situations where he has more access to counters or grabbing things from your hand, try giving him an alternate behavior. So in the kitchen, for example, you can give him a spot to hang out (like a climb with a bed on it) and when he is on his spot, he can gets treats and chews. If he leaves the spot to counter surf, his “prize” is quiet removal to a different room (not a prize he wants, probably). My guess is he is likely to choose to hang out in his spot!
What type of stuff is he jumping at in your hands?
Nice work here!
TracyThose are for sure essential, and since she likes food, I bet she will think they are fun.
Do you have a snuffle mat? She might enjoy that as a way to keep her brain busy.
Another fun game is teaching her to pick up stuff and hold it, like a retrieve but without tugging (for now) and more of a stationary hold. It is a fun shaping game!Tracy
Hi!
>>Sometimes I tend to work to long and you can see it with his wandering lol I definitely need to break more and play tug!>>
Yes, more tugging is great for both getting him to learn in higher arousal (very useful for his future trialing career :)) and also to reduce wandering. Interestingly, the videos below had no wandering. Maybe because he was on home turf? Or because he liked the food and action? Either way all good – definitely add in tugging and that will make it easier in new places too or with games where there is less action 🙂
The foot targeting looks really good here! Tossing the reward back and forth was great for training the behavior, but I also think he really liked the ‘action’ of running back and forth for the treats. He was really engaged for the cookies here for over a minute, which is a long time for a baby pup 🙂
The only think I would add here is tugging before and after, and also adding in a couple of tug breaks in the middle. This will help him learn in higher arousal, and will also set the habit of taking breaks for when you are doing a food-based game without as much action built in 🙂
The parallel path looked terrific! He loves his prop 🙂 This is another game where you can add in some tugging before/during/after. This session was another example of him staying super engaged with the food even with the longer session, because there was a LOT of action of running back and forth for the treats 🙂
Now that the parallel path game is going so well.. add in the rear crosses 🙂 Start pretty far from the prop so he drives ahead of you to it, then you can cut in behind him before he gets to the prop to create the rear cross.
Great job!!
Tracy
Good morning!
>>For what it’s worth, we also hike every day in the woods so he gets to figure out a lot of his body then with all the rocks, fallen logs and chasing Skye (my other Berner, who is objectively ridiculously agile for her size and I hope he learns a move or two while they are at it)>>
I love this! There is so much good learning that happens when a pup can do this with you and another dog. He will learn more about his body by doing this than any other puppy game!
The collection sandwich is looking really great! Your connection here was super strong – check out how he can see your face the whole time (except when you did the blind, where you have to turn away from him LOL!). And he was great about driving ahead to the toy – he really loves that toy and tugging in general, which is great especially because there are treats in the picture. He was even bringing that toy back really well!! Yay!
Now that you are adding distance being outdoors, you can show even more of a distinction between the acceleration and the deceleration – run like mad until he is halfway to you… then slow down a lot. I suggest halfway to you as the decel point because he is really fast so if you wait longer to decelerate, he will possibly go blasting past you 🙂
You can try to add the barrel to this game now (based on the Handling Combo we added on Tuesday)
Backing up to the Klimb looks super! He is remarkably coordinated for a young, big, dude 🙂 Finding the sweet spot of how far away you needed to be was hard – so another option is to create a bit of a channel for him to step back onto the Klimb so it is harder to step off the side. Maybe have one side of the Klimb next to the couch, and something on the side of it (like a box or x-pen). That can help narrow the field of backing up to get more regular stepping backwards.
>>totally focused for 10 seconds or so and then complete fry up/overenthusiasm/forgot what my body is about for the other 10 seconds.>>
The joys of teenage boy dogs! LOL!! Brilliance followed by “wait, what was I doing?” Followed by more brilliance.
Great job here!
Tracy
Hi!
Looking at the turn and burn left turn progression with the bowl –
The first video seemed a lot smoother with the left turns. She didn’t seem to try to change sides and zipped directly around the box. Yay! So for the left turns, you can definitely leave the bowl there and change the reward placement.
On the 2nd video, walking then running with cookies worked well to get her to not hit the box. You can add the toy back to that for the next session (let this percolate for a day or two before going back to it). I think towards the end of this session she needed a brain break, because she was offering the other side of the barrel.
Strike A pose is off to a great start – your position and reward mechanics looked great! She hit the target well on both sides and your reward placement was spot on. Next step – use a toy instead of a cookie 🙂 That will makes things more spicy!
The handling combo with the toy was great! She REALLY seemed happily surprised when the toy came out at the end of it LOL!! Fun! On the flat on the first video, she did really well going from the cookies to the toy then back to the cookies. The toy really raises the energy level of the entire game, in a good way! You also had really clear decels so even though the game was more exciting, she was still able to collect and turn really well.
Since she loves the toy and was not really retrieving it quickly, you can trade for a cookie pretty quickly so she brings it right back.
Adding the barrel was harder of course but she figured out the first rep and then had the big reward of being dragged around on the ground LOL!!! The 2nd rep was even easier for her, which is great because it was too her left, the harder side. SUPER!
You can add in your wrap verbals on the barrel now, she looks ready for them in this game.
Nice work with getting her to hit the hand target – it is HARD to look away from the amazing toy so showing the target again really seemed to help her have an aha moment. Good job NOT rewarding when she jumped up at smacked with her feet. That was likely because she was very stimulated – but asking her to use her nose only is something that requires a lot of impulse control. So because there was no reward for jumping up, she was able to get the nose only on the next rep. YAY!!!
Great job on these! Let me know what you think!
TracyOk then! In this first week of recovery, let’s do some precision trick shaping 🙂 She has learned to touch her nose to the target in the pre-game, so you can sit on the floor with her, with lots of cookies, and teach her to put her head on the floor. She should be in a down position (on a comfy bed is great!) and you can use the target to get her to progressively lower her head more and more until her chin is flat on the ground (the target can be under her chin). It will be the classic head down trick which is adorable and also requires a lot of brain power and impulse control.
Let me know if that makes sense and how she does!
Tracy
Hi!
I am glad you are having fun – you and Roux look terrific!
The strike a pose game is looking really strong. She did really well coming in to hit the target even with the MM and then the toy on the ground. And she drove directly to the target on both sides you, especially when you looked at the target.
A good next step for her, since she is so good with the impulse control is to either have a toy in your reward hand, or on the ground nearer to your feet on that reward line. That will still get the good in-then-out turns while adding challenge to the ‘come in’ element.
Lap turns – you are actually a tiny bit early with your movement to turn her (In agility we are so often late LOL!). Keep your hand extended to her and feet together until she is about 2 or 3 inches from your hand, then step back and pull her through the turn.
You were stepping back when she was several feet away, so she was slowing down and moving wide on the turn. The lap turn might be the only handling move where later is better LOL!
Tandems were well-timed! Note how close she got to you and then you turned her, so the turns were every smooth. Super! You can add a little decel on these tandems to add more tight turning.
Tug-Sit-Tug is looking really good too. She was definitely stimulated, which is the goal. She was only having a little trouble grabbing the toy so you can get it lower for the initial tugging before you ask for the out and wait for the sit.
Since the sit stay does not appear to be a new behavior for her 🙂 you can keep playing with ramping it up: After tugging, she is doing well with holding the sit while you walk away, even with t he higher arousal. YAY! So you can add in jogging away, and eventually building to running away. Running into the opening line on a lead out is a great way to handle certain lines, so you can start teaching her that now 🙂
The handling combo with the barrel looks lovely too – no problem to have the toy on the ground. You did some FCs in there, so you can definitely keep doing those and also add the advanced level with the decel and pivot before driving to the toy.
You can also add your wrap verbal to the barrel. Which verbal(s) have you been thinking about using?
Great job here! You are ready for next steps/advanced levels/adding challenge on all the games 🙂
Tracy
Hi!
Coming in and out with the leash was great practice! You should definitely also isolate the getting the leash back on at the end as a separate training game, not just in sequences, so there is a whole lot of value built for it. You will want to have your whole remote reinforcement toolbox built up for trials 🙂 Also, when doing the harder sequence work, bring a toy with you so you can reward in the moment too.
>>I noticed today that there are some really hard spots and then some really “deep” spots with lots of stone.>>
That could totally be part of it – making it harder to run on!
Good job on the sequence here! She only had 2 little questions: at :43 you were praising her (which sounded like a reward marker) and didn’t quite have the connection on the line. That pulled her off the line. No need to stop there – you can get back on the line and keep going.
And the Check cue was a late starting (verbal and shoulder turn) so she had a bar down.
Much better on the last run – you were connected all the way through and cues were timely. Nice!
“”It is amazing how I consciously try to make sure that I don’t talk over the jumps and then watch the video and….I’m talking over the jumps!””
I don’t think talking over the jump is any problem at all… her question comes when the cue starts over the jump that she is supposed to also be responding to it. If you start the cues sooner (no later than landing of the jump before it, for example) then talking over the jump will be no problem.
One other consideration is to work on and teach these skills on low bars. She as you are both sorting these out, a lot of bars are dropping so to avoid that, try an 8 or 12 inch bar at first. That also saves her body for the jumping and she won’t get as tired.
On the go lines, this is a spot where lower bars will help you – she is doing the line but still having to think about it hard so a lower bar will help her keep the bars up. Also, placing the reward another 10 feet away or so will help because she had to collect here to get it. Ideally she could drive to it in full extensions.
On the 2nd sequence, the exit of the tunnel is the hard part 🙂 staying close to the tunnel exit like you did at 2:50 was what set the line and got the Go line as well. Nice!!! Setting the tight line to the jump and then turning your shoulders worked like a charm.
You didn’t set it quite as well on the last rep or the first couple, so the go line took her right past the middle jump.
>>I know I was pushing her a bit hard because I’m behind and trying to catch up.>>
No worries! She does get tired and changes the way she moves, so one or twice through each sequence is all she needs if you have a lot planned. We have several more weeks in class so fingers are crossed that the weather stay good 🙂
Nice work here!!
Tracy
Hi! Yay for wanting to do more agility!!!!
Yes, you can be mostly “home schooled” and then move into seminars, workshops, trials, etc. We just need to be creative. The skills training is the easy part – getting the dogs happy to engage in higher arousal environments is a little more challenging. But we can use a variety of different environments to teach that – even doing field trips to play these puppy games will build a strong foundation for that 🙂Tracy
