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Hi!
>> She is such a good girlie and always tries so hard. It can be a double edged sword because I can get caught up in trying to “get it right” and she will keep working even though I don’t reward enough. >>
Yes, she is the best! She keeps going no matter what, but you can just reward no matter what. Worst case scenario, we reward a little extra, which is not a problem LOL!
>>I was using only cheese while we were working and tugs/retrieves at the end of our sessions to conserve her energy and not have her get too hot too soon. that being said, I definitely could have rewarded more with cheese and/or keep our motion going through an error.>>
That is smart in the heat (you might notice in the demos I often use food only because it is so dang hot sometimes!) And yes, you can give her more cheese, she won’t be sad about that LOL!
>>I had a passing thought about layering 14. I can set up this section at home adding the layer, verbals, and being more mindful of rewards>>
We have more layering coming next week! Stay tuned! And let me know how this section gets with the layering and verbals (and cheese :))
Tracy
Hi!
>>I needed to walk it several times & a few different ways. I thought I had my plan and then decided to change it to the plan with Front Crosses on my video. >>
Good job walking it! I liked your front cross plan, I think it puts you in a better position than a serp would have. You could have done the serp to blind 6-7 but that would be much harder – I think the FC was perfect!
Wow, sequence 3 looked great! I think a blind cross (or a front cross) 2-3 will make getting 4 easier – you got behind there and I could hear the panic in your voice calling her to 4 LOL!! But you stayed connected and she did really well! And the turn on 7 looked super tight, looked like she did NOT look at the tunnel at all!
The tunnel was blocking the view at :36 so I couldn’t see what he did, but I think you had a little disconnection so she came off the line (because the disconnection turns your shoulders away from the jump, so it is a legit question from Frankie :))
The third rep looked great, even better than rep 1!!!
The blind cross practice was good too – I think it I a matter of finding the sweet spot for your arms. She needs your arm on the send to 2, but then the blind worked better when your arms were lower (so she could see the new connection sooner). She was really fast on all the reps, so I think blinds will be really effective with her!!
>>I started to set up the jumping course, if we are ready. It may be a little squished when I get it finished but I think we can run it.>>
Yes! You are ready! And if it s squished, feel free to modify things to make it fit better.
Great job here!
TracyHi!
This is a wicked hard course and you had a ton of beautiful sections, and great adjustments on the moments that were hard. Yay!
>>I had a lot of issues with not taking that extra step and got some yelling from her. My brain knows the problem, but I can’t get my feet to do it correctly!>>
Another way to think of it is to watch her head, and you keep cuing the obstacle until she cues you that she has it and you can leave. Her cue will look like her head locking onto the line and taking a step towards it. That will also help you get your hands lower – when your hands get high, she has trouble seeing the lines sometimes.
On the previous post, I mentioned wanting to make a bigger connection on the exit of the blind so that she picks up the side change sooner and was tighter… that was what bit you on the opening 3-4. The rotation of the blind was good but you closed your shoulders forward to the 4 tunnel and didn’t look back to her…. So she picked up the off course at :10.
Note the difference in connection at 1:03 – LOVELY!!! Also lovely on the 3rd run!
As you cue the weaves, this is a watch her head moment: keep moving forward to the weaves and cuing them, until you see her head lock onto the first pole – that is her way of telling you that she has it and you can leave for the next thing. You were too early pulling away on the first run so she didn’t get the entry.
You were more connected and moved forward more to the weaves on the 2nd run and she was lovely there too!
Very nice line from the weaves to the 9 tunnel!!! And yes, she is driving brilliantly to that tunnel, even with it slightly offset on the line!!!! And even committing to it with you decelerating to move to the next spot!! Happy dance! 🤩😁
On the 10 jump – you can use the watch-her-head concept at :26 and 2:02 as well, to make sure she cues you to move away when she has the line (lower arm will help). You had really nice lines to 11 each time!
The 12-13-14 section is really wicked and requires a lot of connection – great job sorting that out so the last run had just the right balance of connection and motion. Super!!
>>For 15, I was able to get her into the tunnel by giving a “here” cue. I’m not entirely sure what “here” means, though, lol. It’s something I’ve used forever with other dogs instead of specific directionals, and it just slips out sometimes. I’m guessing it’s just a bit of a head check for Nox.>>
I think it was an effective attention-getter to help her learn a new skill – that is a hard tunnel entry with you far away and showing countermotion! She probably just needed more experience on that skill, it is new and weird!The ending line looked good too – Think the serp lines were faster but it was harder to get the connection to the last jump. The wrap worked really well too!
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
>It will probably be super helpful at some point, but for now, it would be great if she could not see my mistakes, lol.>
Ha! This wins the quote of the day! LOL!
>>It’s so interesting to me that she understands communication between us that I don’t even notice.
It is because they process information in a way that is almost slow motion compared to our processing speed. So they see all the tiny details for better or for worse!
>>The only thing I was really wondering about is your opinion of my choice to try a blind after 4 in sequence 1. I felt like it allowed me to cue and support jump 4 while staying in motion and getting to the next line.>>
Speaking of processing… when I watched the first run, I thought hmmmm, you got a little too far ahead and that is where most of the jumping errors happen (visually, she doesn’t process as well when you are ahead past a certain point). And the 4 blinds on the next sequence were more work for you, but certainly seemed to solve the problem of getting too far ahead- looked really good! So in places where you can do it, a little extra handing so you stay in motion while not getting too far ahead might be just the perfect thing!
Seq 2 looked great! Loved the independent backside at 2 and all of your smooth running and connection!
Sequence 3 looked good too! Remember to make a big eye contact on the exit of the blind (you were a bit too forward, so she was wide 5-6. And I think the bar down on the backside was just a tunnel distraction moment – that is a BIG distraction 🙂
Nice work! Onwards to the course!
Tracy
Hi!
There was a lot of good work here! And a spot where you owe her cookies LOL!Seq 1: She did really well here! Especially her turns, those are looking good!
On the opening line, be aggressive by calling sooner and driving her to the blind at 3, don’t manage her by calling til she is almost at 3 then doing the blind.At :12 you were running back towards 1 with your shoulders facing forward – try to run towards 6 with your serp shoulders open and facing the jump
Similar at :41 and also rep 3: they were better but you’re handling like a threadle but it is a serp so you don’t need to pull her in then push her outSeq 2 – On the first rep, you can send less to 12 so you don’t have to sit as much at 2. And try to push to the backside from further away – your position at :05 on 3 was a bit behind so she didn’t know which way to go and dropped the bar.
Compare that to the 2nd rep – you didn’t send to 1 from as far away and you sent to the 2 backside rom further away – and it was great and put you pretty far ahead to set the line 2-3-4! Nice!!!
And stay super duper connected, big eyeballs to her eyeballs – even a tiny bit of disconnection causes a bar to fall (I am voting in favor of jumping her at 20 especially in training! Jumping 24 all the time is hard on the body and she rehearses dropping a lot of bars). You had little disconnects on the first run, but the 2nd run was perfect connection 🙂
Seq 2 with the tunnel: your opening line looked great! Lovely serp 2-3 (this is what I think the 5-6 line on sequence 1 should look like)
In her defense at :12, your position as she exited #4 was literally at the tunnel entry, as close as possible without you going in it LOL! And as you moved, it opened it up even more.
And also in her defense at :38 you were also right at the tunnel entry AND saying “here here” so she of course thought you meant the tunnel. She didn’t take it but she sure looked at you funny LOL!! So don’t go anywhere near the off course obstacles here – stay really close to the line you want her to run, next to the wing.
Seq 3 – nice FC after 2! Be sure you are watching her head as you cue the tunnel – keep cuing it and sending to it until you see her look at it and lock on, then you can move away to 4. She never looked at it on the first rep because you moved away too quickly. That was a handler error, so you can either keep going or you must reward her – be sure that you don’t walk away without a reward.
The middle section looked really strong! She considered the folded over teal tunnel because it was on her line and she couldn’t figure out how to get into it LOL!! Good girl! She didn’t look at it at all on the 2nd rep.
On the FC after 7 – at :31, your position was running towards the tunnel and you broke connection… so it looked like a spin to the tunnel. She was correct. Reward her!
It is really important to reward her even if you think she was wrong… because when you look at the video, you will see she is not wrong. Watch the section from:30 to :32 in slow motion, and watch your feet: totally running to the tunnel and quite close to it too!
And if you are convinced she was wrong – reward her anyway then watch the video before the next rep. You will see that it was handler error 🙂 Stopping and not rewarding when she has correctly read your cues will be deflating for her, and we don’t want that, especially when you tell her that you are frustrated.At 1:11, you ran backwards toward the tunnel even more, saying “right here!” All of which indicates the tunnel (motion towards it, even backwards motion is a cue, and you did say “right here” so she came to you). Then you caught her and gave her a corrective “NO!” And you can see her deflate. Since it was handler error, go give her 5 cookies right now and she will forgive you 😁😁
>> She slices it and lands almost in the tunnel lol.>>
it was your motion that drew her to it – look at the video and you will see yourself running backwards. That is why I often stop and watch the video when something is going wrong and I can’t figure out why.
So how to NOT get the tunnel? Stay close to the 7 jump backside wing, and connect and then run directly to 8. No motion to the tunnel at all, not even backwards motion – and big connection as you run to 8. That will get it perfectly 🙂
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
Welcome back to you and the girls!!!Looking at Rosie’s step 1 seq 1 video:
She did well on all of these – you did a great job getting her pumped up and ready to run! I liked your start on the 3rd rep and 4th rep the best (:31 & :46) – you had the smoothest path to jump 1 so she was able to get speed and keep the bar up.The rear cross on the 3-4-5 line works well; it is definitely one of your strong tools with her! I think you can play with a blind cross there too (but the rear cross looked lovely).
As you are coming back down the line after 4, try to keep moving through 5 and stay ahead on the way to 6. As you pass 5, you can open up your shoulders and give her a serp arm. When you were pulling away from the jump, she was not sure where 6 was and so she slowed down there, especially if you stopped (like at :35)On sequence 2 – the rear cross on 1 looked great each! She thought the backside on 2 was a little weird LOL! But she took it correctly every single time. Yay! So that might be why she slowed down a bit on the first rep, but got faster and faster on each run.
>>n sequence 2 4 to 5 was a bit awkward. For some reason it did not occur to me to wrap 4>>
It might have been that you had done sequence 1 where the correct turn there was to the right? Or the distance looked shorter? But on the 3-4-5 line – you will have a faster line if you turn her to her left over 4. That will set up a race car line and as she exits 4, she will be looking directly at 5 and can take that line in extension. The right turn over 4 caused you to have to threadle her back in, which slowed her down and created extra turns.
On Lily’s video:
Seq 1 looked great too! You ran tighter lines with her than with Rosie, so she was tighter and faster. The Rear cross on 4 looked great here too and you were much closer to the 5-6 line, so she was tighter. That extra speed actually created a wider turn at 6 because there was too much acceleration from you o the first two reps. On rep 3, you decelerated before she took off and got a great turn there!Her opening on the 2nd sequence looked great too – she is more comfortable with backsides so drove to it a lot better!
As with Rosie, the right turn was harder and because Lily has great line focus, she did not come through the gap on the first rep. No worries! When that happens, you can keep going and reward her 🙂 I am impressed with the rear cross to the FC to the use through the to the rear cross! That was impressive!! The left turn will be easier but wow, that was a lot of fast footwork and she read it really well!!Rosie step 2 – yes, she totally looked at the added jump on the first rep and then she was very judgmental at :10. Small dog, big opinions LOL!!! O the 2nd rep, she didn’t look at it between 2 and 3 but totally looked at it on the way from 4 to 5. It was a good challenge for her!
On sequence 2:
The backside looked good, she didn’t look at the jump at all!
Getting the turn on 4 was hard – it was not as clear if you wanted the left turn or right turn. She reads you really well, so continuing and then rewarding will really help. On the first rep, your line of motion supported the backside she took.
Then on the middle reps, you got her to the front but then stepped onto the rear cross line towards the center of the bar, so she took it to her right – she is very good at watching all of your footwork! O the last couple of reps you ran a great path to the exit wing, never facing the rear cross line, so she totally nailed it. Yay! You did a blind cross there and it worked well – the blind cross seemed to keep your feet pointing to the left turn line the whole time, so she never had confusion about which way to turn. On the front crosses, if you stepped in too soon, she was reading it as a rear cross cue.On Lily’s step 2 video: I agree, she didn’t seem to look at the added jump at all! Good girl! And on the 4-5-6 line, you were great about staying close to the jump so her lines were nice and tight too.
On the 2nd sequence: you turned her to the right on the first rep with the fancy footwork 🙂 and it was a nice tight run. On the next reps, you got her to the left turn side of 4 but then I am guessing it felt weird, so you stopped. At 1:23 you started the blind but she turned right and sniffed (maybe frustration from repeating it a lot?) The reward you gave her after showing it to her helped a LOT and got her back in the game. Then the next reps looked great!
The other thing I really liked about using the left turn at 4 was that you were able to use her distance skills for 5 and 6 and be miles ahead for 7! That will also make other parts of the course much easier.
Great job here! The girls are ready for you to add the tunnel!
Tracy
Hi!
Wow, she is FAST and fun! And great jumper too!
The main thing I see here is that by trying to run her off the start line, the information flow breaks immediately, and she gets into the arousal zone of frustration, and gets going on the big loops. The rest of the course is then spent trying to get her back from that, which is really hard. So first question: does she have a stay behavior of any sort? The more you can lead out, the easier it will be to give great information and reduce frustration.
T
Good morning!
Looking at the remote reinforcement:
The sessions with the toy went well! It is MUCH easier to have it up high! And trading for the treat was good too, because we often have toys and treats with us on the way to the start line at a trial.>>In the first video I caught myself chatting away again..saying yes, or good girl. I do believe you said NOT to mark behavior for this. It muddies the water and isn’t clear for her. Just say ‘Fun’ and run to reward. So I stopped myself and the session.>>
I think the “yes!”for the behaviors was fine – clear and crisp and not blending into the “fun” marker. So the “yes”gave good feedback! What you don’t want to do is something like this:
“YesthatwasreallygoodomgFUNlet’sgetyourtoywowwhatagoodgirl” because the marker will get lost LOL!>>A couple of questions. Do we eventually get the reward lower and lower so they really have to make a choice? Is that important? >>
Yes, eventually, and also on the ground at some point in the distant future. But not any time soon: time is on our side so we can make it easy and fun for her.
>>Having us move the reward up to the table made this game easily successful, thank you. But she can’t get to them to make a choice. >>
True, she can’t grab the treats or toys, but there was still choice there: she had the choice of staying at the table, or moving with you. So there was still a choice, just an easier choice. Failure in this scenario sets up frustration and confusion, so we want to start with easy choices.
>>Perhaps I’m over complicating this.
A lot of old fashioned self control games started with real hard choices for the puppies (like cookies RIGHT THERE in their face) so there was sooooo much failure. Seems rude, when I look back at it LOL!! So we are started with the balance tilted in favor of success and then when she understands the framework, we can gradually make it harder while maintaining the high rate of success.
>>You talked about ping, ponging. Would you ping pong from treats as the reward to a toy as the reward in the same session? Or keep it purely one or the other?>>
You can mix up the rewards in the session, as long as she will continue to take the reward. So if you have hot dogs and offer the toy, she might not be as interested in the toy and so it is not a reinforcement… If she doesn’t continue to take the reward then yes, keep them separate.
About ping ponging – that was not about the type of reward, it was more about how many behaviors you ask for before marking and going back to the reward station. You can ask for 1 behavior, then 3 then 2 then 5 then 1 then 2 then 6 then 2 and so on – it very gradually builds duration while keeping the success rate high.
>>I wanted you to see our Arousal and return to baseline. Does this look right? I found a swatch of real rabbit fur and using licky mat with peanut butter.>>
The arousal up, arousal down game with the lickimat went well too! Her arousal was definitely coming up, because the ‘give’ got a little slower at the end. I know there is not a lot that we can observe, behaviorally, but we trust that good things are happening ‘under the hood’. You can make this game even wilder in terms of the ‘arousal up’ element by throwing the toy so she is running too!
>>It seems like I should be touching her and her collar while she’s licking. Would that be ok?>>
Resist that temptation for now, because that is trying to merge 2 things that should be kept separate. The goal of this is to let her body learn to self-regulate her HPA axis back to baseline. The goal of petting her while she is licking is tolerance/desensitization training, and will likely stimulate her HPA axis so it doesn’t return to baseline. So keep the two games separate 🙂
Great job here!
TracyGood morning!
>>We have been doing short practices, but often without video to go with it. >>
This is totally relatable, and I am doing the same thing – it is kind of like pop up flash mob training, and the video ends up not getting set up or turned on. No worries though – I trust you as a trainer and I know things are going well!!! And plus we have live class this week so it will be good to see her in action 🙂
Strike a pose: My first thought on this is “look at her stay!” Very nice!!!!
She is going to want to release when your hand goes into position (dogs are great at anticipating 🙂 So you can put your hand in position then toss a stay reward to her 🙂
You had some lovely mechanics going with t he target-then-reward moment like at 1:01, where you didn’t move your upper body and just let her come across you to the reward. You had a ton of lovely reps like that, so keep reminding yourself to freeze the pups body because it is really getting the nice turn.
We will be building on this soon, so stay tuned for next steps 🙂
Rocking horse – on some of the reps, you were doing a great FC and that was when things were smoothest. One some reps, you were very focused on her (yay!) but did a post turn and not a FC – so without rotating the game didn’t make as much sense in terms of changing sides.
So for example, at :07 you had a perfect front cross, and another lovely front cross at :14. Compare those to :33, when you did a post turn (kept her on your right side) then tried to pass her in front of you to the other side, and you both were like “hmmm this doesn’t feel right” 🙂 As as you do these, remind yourself to turn towards her and pick her up on your new side.>>I think that in this practice I was not doing what I was supposed to at connecting in the center.>>
It was not a connection question – your connection was lovely. I bet in the next clip that got deleted, you did perfect front crosses and it felt great!
Your sideways sending looked fabulous! This game is actually a lot harder than the rocking horses part 1 but you made it look easy. Super!!! Only one suggestion to add to it: as you rotate and do the sideways sending , the dog has to basically override your rotation and continue past it – this is HARD but useful on course! So when you are sending with your arm and foot, you can also make a big exaggerated connection shift by looking at the other side of the barrel. I like to think of it as letting my eyes follow my fingers to the ‘landing’ spot if this was a jump. If we look at the dog too much, they will tend to stop in front of us (and that is what she was doing here, like at :53). And to help pump up her understanding that it is OK to continue past you to the barrel when you are rotated, you can shift your reward placement to the other side of the barrel right from the start, to help her want to move away to it.
>>As I reread what you had said…that speed is not the most important thing on these practices, i am wondering if I need to spend more time getting the breakdown of the action more clean before asking for the additional flow.>>
Yes, speed is not that important right now: understanding is the key! Speed is the product of understanding and happy teamwork (which is why I obsess a bit on keeping the pups in a high rate of reinforcement). You have a high rate of reinforcement with her, and she is a happy partner 🙂 Yes, you can break things down if she has questions and then add more flow as she gets the understanding.
When training like this, you might feel like she is a little slower than dogs her age… but stay the course! What will happen is that her understanding will be greater and when she is more adult (physically and mentally), it all comes together into one speedy package 🙂 You will see that somewhere between 18 months and 2 years old, give or take a few months. I don’t think my demo pups in the videos are particularly fast, and in fact I think they were a bit pokey LOL!! But they are adult now and competing in 2 sports: and they have the right balance understanding, thoughtfulness, and SPEEEEED 🙂 They regularly clock 7 yps or more in agility and are also super fast in flyball. Patience pays off 🙂
>>JJ got a Best in Breed this weekend and a 3rd place in UKC nosework vehicle searching, earning her a Total Dog award. She then went to a rally and obedience match on Sunday and did okay for her first time trying this kind of practice for both Rally and Obedience.>>
Wow! Congrats!! That is awesome!! I love that you cross train and I especially love the nosework element (soooooo good for pups!!)
Great job here!
TracyGood morning!
He is doing well with the serp transfer concept with the jump – “no problem, mom!”
On the first few reps, you tried to move into position ahead of him and you didn’t quite get there 🙂 The trick is to be in position, and then toss the start cookie away to start each rep. And as soon as you toss the treat, freeze in position so he sees it the instant he looks back at you. That way you won’t end up backing up into position or showing the cues late. Things did get smoother as the session went along, but you were still a bit late getting into position which then made the reward late. He was a happy camper to keep going and eating the cookies 🙂 And he drove in really well to t he target hand!!
As you deliver the reward, try to keep your upper body stationary – try not to let your target hand turn forward to the reward. On course, that shoulder position would remain in place until he locks onto the next jump, so we want to rehearse that here. The reward hand can more, but you don’t need to move the target hand 🙂
Remote reinforcement went really well! The ‘snacks’ marker cracks me up 🙂
>>I ended up moving more than I intended on this one, but his motion for some reason was making me feel compelled to.>>
I think the distance was fine – he didn’t have questions and was happy to do this!
Picture using it at the end of a run – you would be higher in pitch, probably, so you can add that to the word here in practice – higher pitch, more excitement, however you think you might say it in a trial setting, so he gets used to the verbal being delivered like that.
You can totally add some tricks or little behaviors to this now!
>>He has never seen that field and I figured we better just get acclimated with some treats and toy play in that large, enticing, smelly, totally new to him space before I ask him to do any work.>>
That was SMART!!!!!
> I think I did have him go around 1 jump wing a couple of times, otherwise it was just play with toy throws and then letting him go sniff around, then re-engaging for play/treats, then more sniffing if he wanted, etc. >>>
Perfect! Easy and fun, nothing too complicated.
<>
That is great! It is definitely perfect timing to start taking things outside. All of the games start to move more and plus the weather is really nice this time of yes (mostly LOL!!)
Great job here :) Tracy
Hi! Welcome to you and the little guy 🙂
He looked great here! I like how you got him pumped up at the beginning 🙂
Only small suggestions for you:Start closer to 1 so you have room to move more – that will get even more speed.
Your positional cue and right verbal at :18 were so powerful the turn was actually too tight on the tunnel exit and you had to push him back out to 4! Wow! I guess because he is a big dude, the has to scrunch in the tunnel so is less likely to end up driving 10 feet out of it when you have given a turn cue. So just a little name call and a jump verbal is all he needs there.
You were a tiny bit late on the FC at 5-6, probably because you had to push him back to 4 – but his turn was still nice there! Your FC timing and position on the backside push to the FC at 7 was really good. Smart to use the lower bar there! I think his wide turn there was him saying WHAT THE WHAT (or maybe a different 4 letter word haha) with the tunnel sitting right there, so he made the turn but was not quite as tight. But, I am really excited that he made the turn!!!! Yay!!!!! In the future, that turn will tighten itself up as he gets used to seeing tunnel distractions right in his face.
Great job!!!!
TracyHi!
>>Hoke is getting frustrated easier lately so I let some of handler induced errors go. I think the puppy bugs him & he doesn’t like sharing me with him.>>
When I read this, I thought yes, getting a puppy can be stressful so maybe he is feeling that. But after watching the videos – I think the rate of reinforcement is too low, so that is the root of the frustration. There were a lot of places here where you stopped due to handler error, and he didn’t get any reward. Remember that the 2 options are to either keep going as if a handler error didn’t happen, or if you must stop – reward immediately. And all of these are handler errors for all of us, even the bars 🙂
Seq 1 – The opening line looks good! I think you had the 5 jump on the wrong side – it should be the easy line from 4, not the threadle, so that caused some confusion. And if something goes wrong, keep going. If you do stop, you must reward before starting again. There was an error and he didn’t get rewarded.
Trying to threadle is what pulled he bar on the 2nd rep on 4, and then remember to turn you shoulders sooner 6-7 (late shoulder turn caused him to adjust in the air, so the bar came down).Video 2 –
>>My videos got confused so I don’t have a lot of that to see. Even so, I see myself running this wide circle path to get him there. I need to break this down – exact challenge for us – send to the back side, support, move away all at the same time.>>
The trick to the backside is running a parallel path to it, without blocking the wing. So after sending to 1, you can cue the backside by running a parallel line to his line, with huge connection and verbals – and not trying to step around to shape his line. You can put a line on the ground to where the wing and bar meet, to give yourself a visual ‘fence’ to stay behind “ 🙂 and when that goes well, you can move the line over bit by bit, to the exit wing.
>> Interesting difference in your videos of Voodoo & the more support you give Contraband>>
Voodoo is 10 years old with extensive backside training, so he is much more independent. Contraband is 3 🙂 so he needs me to run that connected parallel path a bit closer to the entry wing – and Voodoo can get it from a long ways away 🙂
O the first rep, you had some bars down – just a bit too disconnected there, looking forward. When you hear the bars coming down, intensify connection and keep going, then reward, so he doesn’t get frustrated.
2nd rep was definitely better! Your wrap cue and be sooner for 6 to tighten up the turn, and you made that adjustment for the 3rd rep – that was really lovely!!!!Video 3 – You started with a right turn on 4, when a left turn is a better line. There were a couple of spots here where he should have been rewarded, or you can just keep going:
At :22, he ended up in the tunnel – I think you wanted to pull him in then sent him back out so he was reading you correctly (but didn’t get rewarded).
At :31 you had the wrong side and resent him – that can also be frustrating, so try to just keep going and not even fixit – dogs get frustrated and confused when they read us correctly and we stop and fix it.
The last run was the best in terms of keep going and staying connected! You can add more of his directionals and not just his name or jump or here. The directions will really help him sort out where to go too! I think you wanted the left wrap but said jump and pointed to the center of the bar, so he rear crossed. But, keep going and stay connected – worked really well!
Seq 4 –
The opening looked really good, especially on the first rep. Nice!!! For the backside at 7 – connect and drive to it, watching his head. And keep driving to it and saying the cue while watching his head until you see his head lock onto it… then you can move into the front cross. You were looking at the backside ahead of him and not at him, so the timing was too early.
He read your cues there correctly but didn’t get rewarded until 10 seconds later. Last run had better handling to the backside but then you lost connection a bit.
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
Yes, the BIG MAD is one of the many things I love about Gemma. If we are not correct, she is going to list ALL the reasons why we were not correct. Ha!
>>Do you think the live exercises would be best or the pop outs?
Do the live exercises! They will keep working the same concepts but will be different to keep things very spicy and fun 🙂
Looking forward to seeing it!
TracyHi!
>>I recognize that the other learning here was all about performance goals and achievement goals…. We clearly threw out all the performance goals in order to reach the achievement of getting all 3 sequences done.>>
Totally relatable, such is the life of an agility instructor – squeezing in the training or for me, trying to get all the demos on video in the 35 seconds I can squeeze it all into 🙂 At least I have 5 different dogs who can help me out LOL!!
But yes – a self-talk thing you can remind yourself is that it is great to do one or two, and you don’t need to do it all.
The other thing you can tell yourself is that in the interest of time, if the run falls into the “that was pretty darned good” category, you don’t need to do it again! For example, you did sequence 1 twice. The first run was gorgeous! So you can say “nailed it!” And move on to sequence 2 🙂
Seq 2: Doesn’t matter that it was not quite the sequence on the map, it is still good training! When he lands from 3 at :36, look at his head for the backside cue and keep saying it until you you see him looking at the backside. You turned too early on that rep. Same on :48 – you were looking forward not at him. Be sure to reward him in the moment you stop ! Ideally you would keep going as if it was perfect (he read you correctly) but if you stop, you must reward him 🙂
The next rep with the 3 bars was all handler errors – tentative sending to 4, then talking over the bars (and not cues, just talking, so he was starting to ask questions, especially since you are normally pretty quiet).
Seq 3 – the opening looked good, The bar on the backside was probably just a WHOA TUNNEL DISTRACTION moment because he was fine on the 2nd run 🙂 Nice!
Seq 2 redux 🙂 Your ran it beautifully but that 4 jump is supposed to the the front, not the back 🙂 I had to double check it because you ran it with such conviction LOL!!! It was really lovely connected, and well-timed 🙂
>>Good things…Sly never really looked at any of the off course obstacles and it was a really good mental learning session. Rushed is my biggest mental challenge!!!>>
Yes! He never moved towards the off courses – I think the looked at the tunnel on sequence 3 when the bar dropped (it is a massive distraction!), but then it was not an issue for the next rep. And yes, getting back to that centered state of focus even when you were rushed or mad at yourself 🙂 was great! And it is actually great practice for trials, where we humans are basically resetting ourselves all day 🙂
Great job!
TracyHi!
>>Think I was thinking I would be so far behind that I would need to default to threadle wrap as I did the first day I worked this exercise.>>
One thing to remember is that you can still be proactive and aggressive, even when behind 🙂 Trust your send! It is a strong skill for both you and Roulez! Getting behind and doing harder handling makes it harder for you both.>>As to in in– my flappy tappy means to come in to me. My threadle slice cue is a hand back, shoulders open. >>
I think the flappy tappy muddies the waters for her, because it doesn’t give any line info – it is basically a “hey you!” cue, which is reactive handling. You can see it happen in your standard video here too – not that useful as compared to showing the line.
>>Running that sequence I “felt” her drifting to the right and used the floppy to come in to me and take the front side of the jump. >>
I think that is reactive handing 🙂 Try to proactively cue early and leave, and don’t be reactive and try to adjust – just keep cuing the proper line and see what happens. Otherwise, you will get into reactive mode as a habit, which ends up putting you further behind.
Looking at the big whooper standard course – really nice! It is a hard one!!!
Opening:
The lead out push is looking good – you don’t have to lead out as much on those first few reps and then you can send to the tunnel and layer on the way to the backside after the DW.You hustled to get the backside on rep 2 at :48, but leading out less and then doing the big layering will get you there sooner 🙂 At 3:27, trying to get to the other side of the tunnel pushed her around 4, and especially since you only said tunnel – ideally you keep going when that happens, or if you stop (not ideal) you must reward or she is going to build frustration into the training. She was correct there – your motion pushed her past the jump and you were already yelling “tunnel tunnel tunnel” so……. 🙂
You did the layer at the end of the session and it worked GREAT! YES!!!
Looking at the 10-11-12 line:
>>I will be interested in your take on why from 10》11 she chose the tunnel. I felt like my motion and body position were indicating #11.>>
I think she had valid points on her decisions there 🙂 Any time you that happens (she ends up in a spot that is unexpected and you think the handling was clear) – watch the video in slow motion before the next rep and you’ll see what happened and how to fix it.
On the first rep at :54, you had too much pressure towards 11 and she thought it was a rear cross (turned left then adjusted n the ground) because it did indeed look like a rear cross line!
At 1:08 – you closed your shoulder away and opened back up… looked like a pull-flip to the other side of the tunnel, so that is what she did.
After that, you added the flappy tappy – it got her head turned to you, but it stops you from handling the line and she dropped the bar. Then at 1:50 she was really unsure (she was trying to read the handling but being told it was wrong, so was not trusting things) and you broke connection and she took the tunnel slowly.
Remember to reward in there – off courses are handling errors so reward her, even if you think you were right. 99% of the time, the dog is correct. And if it was the 1% where she actually made a mistake? No worries, one extra reward won’t build a behavior. But withholding a reward can build the frustration pretty quickly.
At 2:22 you turned your shoulders a lot better and stayed connected so she did it well. You used an outside arm but I don’t think you needed it, just the shoulder turn like you did in that spot at 2:55.There were a couple of small bloopers in there (I think she had the wrong side of 12 early on, and at 3:55 – you turned too early at the frame and pulled her off the backside but you corrected those quickly by connecting and running a better line there.
(Good job staying in motion and carrying on after the blooper!!!)The layering 13-14 also worked really well!! She needs more verbals, starting before she even gets into the 13 tunnel – the more you told her, the better she read it so definitely plan to use lots of words when you are layering. Fight for it on the way to 14, you can layer there too
I think her running wide on the switch then past the teeter when you got the switch were frustration behaviors – not enough reinforcement so far in the session, lots of starts and stops with no rewards ,so she was not really trusting the info. You got her back on track and the ending line looked good after that!
On the repeat of the ending line, you got the off course jump straight ahead both times – she had a better line to the teeter there than she dd earlier in the session, and you were not as far ahead to show the turn – all of which shows the straight line to the off course jump. She needs a directional for the exit to get the turn, and she needs to hear it and see you turn while she is still about 6 feet before the tunnel entry – once she is in the tunnel, she has already decided the exit because she can no longer see or hear you.
Nice work hashing out the difficult pieces here to get the big success! The 2 suggestions to add in for next time are to keep going if there is an error (or reward if you stop), and to watch the video before trying to repeat something unless you are 1000% sure you know what went wrong 🙂
Great job!
Tracy
