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Good morning!
Looking at the wobble board video:
The sound startled her at first – she was able to eat the treats and get her front feet on, but she was being a little careful. We can bridge the gap and add more sound more slowly by sticking a few towels under it so she can still move it to make noise but it won’t be quite as loud. And the treats for this should be the Best.Ever. 🙂 Favorite high value food will really help her want to slam it around 🙂
One other thing you can do is use a fun toy to chase or a ball: when she slams it, throw the ball away from the wobble board, so it is like a hit-and-go. That can be super fun and she will come charging back to slam it again for another toy throw 🙂
The folding it in game went really well too! You got the bowl pretty far around the cone!
As the bowl moves further around the cone, you can delay the ‘get it’ until after she is at the cone. Otherwise, get it does mean to come directly to get the reward so she would not be wrong if she went directly to it 🙂 So instead of ‘get it’ when you let her go to start moving, you can use your wrap verbal.
Nice work here!!
TracyGood morning!
>He really likes the minny pinny for whatever reason. He liked it in the last course and he still likes it now. We were not working on it today but it was still set up and he offered to show me that he knew how to do it as we walked past to our other activity.
That is so funny! I didn’t think particular game was so exciting but I am glad he loves it!
>I’m not certain he will find it motivating to have mixed in reps of just chasing the reward for being held instead of doing the minny pinny but we can give it a try and see what happens. He will be sure to be clear on his opinion either way.>
He will let us know 🙂 Being held is a bit of pressure and release of pressure to move away can be quite fun for pups!
Looking at the find the jump video:
When you had the blooper moments, you had 2 variables that we harder: distance (literal & ahead) and less connection. The less connection part was not deliberate, I think it was because of the winter coat. But after a few rewards and a rest, he was pretty perfect in the 2nd session! Your connection was stronger throughout the 2nd session too, but he was also more locked onto the jump which allowed you to change your position more and change distance more.
This is a fun one to keep you both warm, so keep adding distance and more running 🙂 You can add a jump verbal too, that will help lock him onto the line.
The zig zag also went well!
>This one was trickier for me as I tried to figure out my motion.
In these earlier stages, the motion is “whatever needed to get the behavior”. Your movements were very clear and that went a long way to him feeling very confident and moving faster. The earlier you moved, the earlier he could change his line in both sessions (and the second session did not need as much dramatic movement from you)
He seemed to be balanced in both directions! Super! When you revisit this, move the wings in a few inches closer so you both have to move faster 🙂
>He disagreed with my “all done” information and went and lay down beside one of the wings and stared at me.>
Ha!!!! He felt you needed more practice , maybe 😂
Sends and serps is off to a great start. The reason he got the first 2 reps really easily were that you were turning your shoulders like a post turn. When you did more of a serp line which kept you parallel to the bar, it was harder for him. Sending him to the start wing from further away will help because you will be visible between the uprights doing the serp cues. You were starting with him t the wing on these, so he was ahead of you which was more of a 180. Getting ahead to show the serp should help him see the line and not go past the jump when you are moving parallel to it.
Nice work here!
Tracy
Good morning!
>I think I have trouble with that even with my older ones. I need to work on keep my hand back and shoulders pointed where she should go. >
Staying connected is the hardest part of agility! Emphasizing eye contact is what helps us keep our shoulders pointed to the line we want.
>Carmen had her 10 month birthday today. She’ll jump 24″, she’s about 26″ at her shoulders now. I’m not in a rush to have her jumping 24 and I’m totally fine with no jumps when she’s learning things.>
Happy 10-month birthday Carmen! If she is being 12” on the set point, that is great for now! She is still really young. And even though she measures into 24” you might consider 20”P for AKC because their typical yardage might not give her enough space to fit her big stride. The height difference will change her landing point and a lower height gives her more room to fit herself into.
>She loves chasing the toy I throw as she comes out of the tunnel.
She was finding the jump quite brilliantly here! Keep moving up the line parallel to the jump as you throw it, so she doesn’t ignore your decel and keep running straight.
>She wasn’t as zippy doing the wrap to the tunnel.>
That might have been that you were a little off the line to it, combined with a little but of FOMO singing from your other dogs 🙂 She worked really well ignoring them, only one moment of her being caught up in their sad song LOL 😂
I think the hardest part was bringing the toy back 🙂 so you can run. The other way and reward her for bringing it towards you or even all the way back to you.
She had a couple of questions about going into the tunnel – be sure to keep moving towards the tunnel with connection so stationary position doesn’t dilute the tunnel cue or any decel cues. And if she misses the tunnel, keep going:
She gets deflated when there is a handling blooper – like at 2:32, you were saying tunnel but your feet and shoulders were already pointing to the other side of the tunnel so she was confused and deflated when you stopped. In that moment, you can assume the question is related to. Handling error and keep going to the jump then reward. Usually errors like that are because we are not connected or turned away too soon, so you can fix it with more connection on the next rep after the reward for the jump.
>Today my friend came over to train with her dogs too so that added a little more challenge. I kept things short and made things easier. I’m happy that she will work with others around and comes back to me. It’s harder when we’re training with her puppy friends around though.>
It is great that she had the opportunity to have other people & dogs around! Yay!! Keeping it short and easy was exactly correct because the other challenges were harder 🙂
Nice job here!
Tracy
Good morning! Hope you had a good weekend!
Is that a bag of cheese sitting on the grass? Yum!!! She did great though – I think I was more distracted by it than she was LOL
You can add in walking back and forth: not towards the distraction because the might make her think you want her to go to it. But, past it at a reasonable distance as if you don’t even know it is there.
You can also play different games with it, like the prop game or even cone wraps which she is great at 🙂
How did she do at pet store with this? I am sure she nailed it there too 🙂
Great job!
Tracy
Good morning!
>Yes, it is Dot’s first seminar and with Loretta Mueller. >
Perfect! I trust that Loretta will set things up for success. I don’t always trust others to do that! But Loretta is great 🙂
>I am bringing my snuffle mat. Honestly, I’m not sure what we will do. I will have to bring a long line to attach the toy! >
Yes, bring the snuffle mat, her favorite toys, line to attach to them, longer toys to attach to them, etc – and Loretta will have great ideas for you.
>Dot will NOT potty on a walk. It’s very odd behavior and a bit frustrating. >
That is definitely challenging!!
After about 10 minutes of her pulling on the leaah and staring at the environment I give up as it feels like a battle and she needs to relax to go. The minute I take her outback she squats.>
This might be strengthening the substrate preference of waiting til she gets to her home base substrate. Bladder Of Steel!
Question: when she is pottying in your backyard, is she on leash? That might be the first step.
I think you might have to do this first thing in the morning. She sleeps in a crate, so you can have a leash right there and as soon as you want to take her out: leash on! Outside we go!
If she doesn’t normally potty on leash, you can have her leash on and take her to her normal spot.
But if she normally has a leash on and it fine with it in the normal spot, put her leash on and take her out front or to the side of the house. And be prepared to wait, hang out, check your email, etc. Come back in after she has peed. Choose a day with good weather to do this 🙂
>We tried hold the line. OMG…why am I not stepping? Maybe the space is too small. I’ll see if i can fix that as it seems habitual based on the oast 2 videos.>
You can practice and video without her to get your leg involved. On this game, the leg is less important because we are cueing a forward focus to the cone as the toy moves around the line.
She did really with this game! The impulse control on the toy is hard but she is getting it! Super! You had her in a stay a lot, so be aware that it adds another level of impulse control. As the toy gets further and further around the line and to the stage where she has to pass it, you can go back to holding her and as you cue the forward focus so she doesn’t have to also think about holding the sit.
The “leave Sprite alone” variation on the pattern game was great! Plenty of challenge for Dot to have to process and ignore. This is likely something to do a LOT with Sprite presence. Dot found this challenging with Sprite just hanging out, so you can revisit it again. When Dot is able to completely ignore Sprite, you can add in something like Sprite having a toy or chewy. Hard stuff but a good life skill!!
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
>Hello from below freezing Gainesville, FL (a weird sentence to write). Hope you are staying warm!>
And hello from Brooksville, FL – just a bit south of you! And no, I’m not staying warm LOL!! We hosted an outdoor seminar this past weekend and it was COLD. Ugh.
>Unfilmed, Wing wraps went much better as I removed the toy from above her head and instead focused on clear sight lines! I think I just confused her with the toy and the pointing.>
Yay! That is great!
>She likes to pounce on it when we do parallel path…is this okay or should I be doing something to mitigate that?>
The parallel path game is going super well and I love the pounce – nothing needs to change about that. She might change it herself when she sees the next steps, but it is great for now!
To be able to add more distance and get her driving ahead (to set up the rear cross), you can change the reward strategy: instead of clicking and rewarding from your hand, switch to marking with a get it and throwing the reward. That will get her looking ahead and not thinking about your position.
The sends & countermotion looked strong too! The sideways sends as the warm up had a lovely transition from the ready game to the sends. She was surprised the first time you moved away early on the countermotion but then she nailed it on the other reps. Super!
For the rear crosses on the prop – she is glued to your hand because she was getting the rewards from you hand. This will get more easier when you switch to the thrown rewards for the parallel path, because she will drive ahead of you more. That will allow you to switch behind her to the new side before she arrives at the prop. So when you revisit the rear crosses, start with a few reps of just going straight and throwing the reward. Then when she is driving ahead, you can cut behind her nice and early to the new side. No worries if her prop hit is not perfect, you can still reward her for turning the correct direction when you are adding the earlier timing.
>My favorite (and it seemed like hers) was the Collection Sandwich. It really felt like putting it all together! >
I am so glad you like it! It is basically real agility without obstacles 🙂
The blind to decel to pivot looked great! The close up moment was hilarious LOL! You did a great job with decelerating early and getting your hand nice and low to be able to show a super tight turn with the pivot. Throwing the treat pretty far definitely gave you time to get the blind cross done on time.
And did your pants have her face on them? So cute!
>PS: yes my pants do have Ingy’s face on them!>
Ha! I saw this at the end. I love the pants!
>The only bit of trouble we had with the “Go” addition (after filming) was that the rocks/acorns on the ground look like cookies, so she would go but then sniff. Is this just the terrain or something I should work through more?>
It is probably just the terrain, so you can use a large towel and toss a big white piece of cheese or something that she can see easily onto the towel, so she doesn’t lose it in the rock/acorn/dirt. Or, throw a toy or ball because that will be more obvious and also very fun 🙂
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
>Between work, the awful weather and training facility availability I’m behind. >
Yes, life gets in the way and this winter has been a BEAST everywhere!
The smiley face game is going really well! Her commitment is going really well, especially when you have really clear connection (which you did for most of this!) And she did a GREAT job of ignoring the construction noise!
The only real blooper was at 1:56 where you just moved away a little too fast so she pulled off the barrel.
We can clean up the verbals 🙂
One suggestion is to use specific reward markers (like get it) for when you are throwing the reward so she begins to learn when to look at the toy and when not to.
You had nice verbal directionals here! Try not to say ‘good’ or ‘ready’ while actually running her – that causes her to look at you and come towards you when we want her out on the line more. Sticking with the directionals and the connection is all she needs.
Wrap proofing also went well! Good job holding her so she could hear the verbals a few times before letting her move to the obstacle. That really helped! You had a little tiny bit of handling/physical cue to help her out which worked well for this first session.
On the next session: use fewer physical cues (see if you can be stationary on both the wrap and the tunnel cues). You can also change the angle of the tunnel entry so it is fully facing her as she is wrapping the wing: it will be easier to find the tunnel but harder to do the wrap 🙂 And you can add the advanced level of cueing the tunnel then the wrap, all in one sequence.
The pill bug game looked great! I am glad Tina was holding her because you definitely needed the head start: she was FAST! Great job being connected with the toy across your body: she knew exactly where to be.
Remember that errors on this game are handler errors, so when she ended up on there other side of the tunnel you should totally reward her.
She looks ready for the next steps, where you add the blinds and also add the 2nd pillbug tunnel.
And yes, she loved that toy: it was fun and long so she was very engaged! Definitely use it in more games 🙂
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
>there seem to be some things that she is trying to tell me that I need help sorting out.>
Yes, she is a good communicator! The overriding goal is to find things to rewards on each rep. And that might not have anything to do with the original game plan LOL!
This session actually became about the tunnel! The tunnel became the question (not the jump). So you can leave the original plan and just get her happy in the long/dark tunnel, or switch out to a shorter tunnel. Or almost straight tunnel.
Things go sideways with young dogs all the time, so two thoughts on that:
Be sure to *not* change your tone or demeanor if something goes wrong. She definitely perceives the shift and that can cause the freezing. The best thing to do is keep going as if it didn’t happen, reward something, then figure out what went wrong.
It is possible that she doesn’t understand something (long dark tunnel) or that there was handler error. For example, at :46, you cued the tunnel then took off so she had a question about that. She did find the jump based on your physical cue there, so that is entirely rewardable. Note how she stopped and looked confused and looked at the cup, as if saying “I just took it, you were moving towards it, how is that wrong?”
Often, when something goes wrong, you call her name and you stop – the name call might be confusing because it should be a recall, but it is paired with stopping and indication that she was wrong, so she freezes. So even if it goes wrong… keep going and reward something even if it is a trick after she keeps moving.
>On the initial line up, I didn’t reward her for the line up. To me it seemed like she interpreted this as a “stay till rewarded” exercise. Not sure how to handle this in the future as I don’t want to always have to reward her for lining up.>
We have seen her ask this question a few times: freeze when released. You can test the theory of ‘is she expected a reward in position or behind her’ by doing that then see if she releases forward on the next rep.
Another possibility is that when she is unsure of the correct response, she doesn’t leave the sit. She doesn’t want to be wrong but is not sure how to be right. So you can jumpstart the behavior by using a target or placed reward for the first rep or two and see if that helps! She was finding the jump really well by then end after a bunch of rewards, so you can start the session with targets or placed rewards to get the understanding going before adding challenge.
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Hi!
>Tarzan takes on advanced collar grabs…>
Ha! Best game title ever! I’d say Tarzan nailed it!
>Again with the multitasking! Working on heel/side with the collar grab! No problem at all for him!>
Yes to all the multitasking – and add in a tighter sit on the platform. Tight sits are the foundation for SO MUCH good stuff and the platform helps.
The multi-task of it all slides the collar holding right in without him even having to devote much brain bandwidth to the collar at all. Note how he was scratching at it at the beginning (“ewww, clothes!”) but then as soon as he had a focal point of the platform and a game to play: he was totally engaged.
Great job working him back and forth so he lined up on both sides of you. You can add in toy play here too: can he still line up, organize the sit, get his collar held, all while in the higher arousal brought by the toy play? And you can also see if he likes lining up between your feet to play this game.
Nice work here!
Tracy
God morning!
I agree, there is so much folded in here besides impulse control: lining up, collar holds, forward focus, building the look cue, and handler pressure because we are so close to the dog. He was fabulous!
OMG I loved your celebration when he got around the cone to the bowl! So fun! Is his middle name Joseph? Every pup needs a middle name 🙂
Try to delay the get it marker: at :26, you said get it as you released him and moved your hand… since get it means to go get the reward (and he is too young to know that we would like the cone wrap before it), I don’t think he was wrong there necessarily. But since we do want the cone wrap… so you can wait until he is at the cone or halfway around it before using your get it reward marker.
When you release him, you can either be silent (that is so hard for us humans :)) or you can use a wrap verbal if you are sure he will wrap. You can also use an interim sound if you are not sure he will wrap (because we want to protect the wrap verbal) as long a you don’t say Go (because it is a turn not a Go line).
Since he did really well here, you can keep inching the bowl around the wing. And you can try it with a toy too!
Great job :)
Tracy
Good morning!
Baby Rye did great here on the disc! It is pretty fully inflated so balancing is harder – that might be why he was doing a box turn on it hahaha
It seemed like he understood that offering was key but was trying to sort out how to balance his whole body on it. Excellent patience from you, letting him sort it out and rewarding smaller pieces until he got all 4 feet on!
Since baby dogs don’t have a lot of strength yet, you can take out some of the inflation for now so it is a flat surface that is still little unstable. That will allow him to figure out how to balance more easily – when he had all four feet on at the end, he was shifting his weight into his front end (partially because it was easier to balance, partially because it got him closer to you and the treats :)) On a flatter surface, he can have a more balanced stand and you can also ask him to do position changes (stand to sit, sit to stand, maybe even a down too) to get his hind end more engaged.
Nice work here!!
Tracy
Good morning!
>Wow! I’m incredibley proud of her & for her age, wow! >
Yes, there is so much to be proud of. She is such a delightful pup!!
She looked great on her Lowe’s adventure! Super happy to explore and lead the way. The loud noise moment was fantastic to see – weird noise, big bang… she stands still, looks at it, wags her tail then goes back to her shopping. LOVE IT. That is a great resilience moment where there is a little pulse of stress that her body was able to regulate and dismiss (under the hood, her body was working to balance the release of stress hormones back to baseline).
>As we were walking along she would periodically check in – so I rewarded that with cookies and praise >
This is great! Her ability to check in is a good way to assess how she is feeling in the moment.
Great job here!!!
Tracy
Good morning!
>Yesterday was a break day for Dublins training. His stomach is having trouble again so he is on chicken and rice. >
Poor Dublin! You might need to alternate training days: one day is training with some food, then the next day can be toy-only stuff so his body can process the treats and not get overloaded.
>Well I have learned hungry Dublin and chicken rewards trumps toy.>
Yes, he was hungry but also I think he was into the toy too. Tugging at the beginning went really well and he started off great with the toy! The toy itself is really great and he drove to it really well but he was more interactive with it when you then grabbed the other end and tugged. Also, when you praised him before you also grabbed the toy, I think he was expecting you to give him treats. So you can grab the toy first then tug a bit then praise.
For the food bowl – he did a great job here! Since he did so well, you can move. The bowl further around the cone a little bit each time. That will help add challenge and also limit the # of treats in his belly while also teaching him the game 🙂 He did great and looks like he is ready for more challenge!
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
>Its very cold outside despite being in FL (low 20’s with strong winds).>
I am currently in Brooksville, FL , it is currently 23 degrees. And I just hosted an outdoor seminar this past weekend…. EEK! Two of my friends were presenting and I was working my young dog. Let’s just say I had 75 layers of clothes on and the wind was just evil! Brrrrr!! Bandit would have been blown away in some of those big gusts!
Onwards to good Florida weather coming this week!!!
Using his airplane bag as the wing wrap object was clever – it is pretty ideal for this! He did great with that. Note how he kept playing the bowl game as you went to get the barrel LOL!
The barrel was humongous compared to him but it looked like he said “Challenge Accepted” and this was his best wrapping! Brilliant!
Ok then, let’s add the next steps that will lead nicely into the next set of wrapping games:
Sticking with the barrel, change your position to sitting. You can be on a chair or anything that is comfy to sit on. During the sit sessions:
– if he is comfy with you sitting and continues to wrap, you can push the barrel a little further away to add distance. Just an inch or two at a time will be plenty of challenge. If he struggles, you can move the barrel back in a little closer.
– when you are sitting and he is wrapping, you can change the position of thetwo bowls. Move them back so they are next to your heals and not next to the barrel. That is the next step to begin fading them out.
If he is happy with both of those and is zipping around the barrel? Repeat the process with you standing up (starting with the barrel close to you). It might all happen in the first or second session, because he is really absorbing this game.
The plank game is looking fabulous! He is getting more and more coordinated with getting his feet on it and turning around. He was so cute offering the down even when you said sit (he is still learning the words) but was super comfy on the plank! And going from the down to the stand showed lovely balance. His turning around also looked strong.
Amping him up with the toy was perfect, because we do need him to think about using his body well even when he is in higher arousal. The only difference I saw when you got him back on the plank was that his responses were actually faster and more precise – that is FANTASTIC! He was not quite as perfect when you started asking him to run across the plank and you were moving faster too, but I think he was just surprised and not struggling. Higher arousal is actually helpful for performance as long as the pups can self-regulate and not get overaroused.
Since the weather is going to be cold for another day or two, you can make an indoor walkway by lining up as many of his balance obstacles as you can fit in one space for him to walk along, like a trail. Then when it is warm again, take some stuff outside and see how it goes (start easier when he is outside because that might change things).
Great job! Stay warm!
Tracy
