[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!

>.. I found it fascinating to think about the arousal states and then the different levels of sustained focus and how much distraction they can/cannot block out.

Yes, I love that nerdy stuff! So fascinating and helpful!!!

>> I wanted to let it run so you could see all of the in-between things and the pattern and arousal games. It was cool to see him come back during the pattern game when he heard the sheep. I could totally tell what caught his attention. >>

Yes, it was insightful to see the whole session! The animal noises certainly added a distraction for a heartbeat, but then he came right back into engagement and had no issues with it after that.

Two things I think you can add to the session:
– do the pattern game-to-volume dial before every run. Your first run here was your best and it is possible that adding a little bit of arousal regulation before each run can make every run your best 🙂

– if you are going to run the sequence differently or do a different sequence, you need to walk it and plan it first before you run it. He is too fast and inexperienced for any handler freestyling, and that is why you were getting bars down (late info probably because you were planning as you were trying to also run him). So, take a moment to walk it before you run it and I bet you will see a lot of oopsies fade away.

First sequence super nice!!!! Great connection and timing, all went really well.

You will get a better turn (bar up) on jump 4 the pinwheel jump if you send and leave (2:46) rather than round the line with him/ Rounding the line causes you to be facing the fence instead of 5 so he is trying to adjust in the air. Compare to 1:38 where you were already turning towards 5 so he jumped 4 cleanly.

You can add a turn cue before the tunnel entry especially to set up the RC so it is easier to get on the RC line.

I think the next run was a bit of a freestyled run 🙂 and the handling was not as quick & clean, witj you rounding line in the pnwheel at 3:59 (ticked bar) and also decelerated through that section so there was a bar down after it.

>> On the last run, I realized I was out of position and ended up backing up

Yes – that landing side handling is hard to get to on time – think of moving forward towards the last jump rather than parallel to the 2nd to last jump – that can help even if you are late 🙂

Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi! Great work here, Annalise!

Sequence 1 – Prytania was on fire here, moving so fast!! Great job with your verbals too! Nice teamwork 🙂

You are getting better at continuing if something goes sideways 🙂 There is a lot of acting involved, almost movie-star level 🙂 If something goes wrong, don’t react to it at all, just keep running as if it was totally correct, reward her, and then figure out how to show it to her more clearly on the next rep. That will keep her super fast and it is also super fun to keep moving 🙂

Good job adding more connection on the exit of the tunnel – the first rep was not quite strong enough but then all the other reps were lovely. You can also play with seeing how early you can send and leave to the 4 jump (pinwheel jump) so she can set up the turn and keep the bar up, and you can get way ahead.

For the RC, you are getting a little ahead of her which makes setting the RC line a little harder. To show the RC info sooner, you can go in closer to the tunnel so you can drive to the center of the bar sooner – no need to wait until she is already past you, she will pass you as you are driving to the center of the bar. No need to pull your shoulder to face the jump then do the RC, you can be connected and running to the center of the bar the whole time.

Excellent advice from your mom to run into the tunnel to get the RC – lovely!! That looked terrific!

The sequence with the blind was AWESOME!!! Both of you were blazing fast and connected – just be sure she is landed fully before you throw the toy so she doesn’t land on the jump trying to get it.

Seq 2 – really nice opening! If you are rear crossing you have to come in closer to the obstacle before the RC and let her catch up a little, so you can set up the RC line, just like the tunnel in the previous sequence. That will make it easier for her to pass you and read the rear cross.
For the blind, trust her a lot! When she is landed from 3 and looking at 4, you can start it. This is more like what you did at 2;33, that was really strong!!
After the blind, she just needed one more step to the jump to get past you, so yo ucan watch her head to make sure she is looking at the jump before you start the next handling move. And it doesn’t matter if she takes it or not… keep running 🙂 Acting! That is the best reward for her 🙂 and will keep her motivated and super fast like she was her.

Love how she can have a big stride on the etension line and then set up the tight turn on the spin. SO NICE!!!

>> Susan was gone for the first sequence and came back for the second. She was arranging a mat on the aframe and you can see it threw her off for a minute or two!!!>>

I think yes, having Susan there was a little distracting but see how it was all good, Prytania was perfectly focused, til you stopped when there was a blooper? That was when she sniffed then the wandered off. So if you had kept going, she is not likely to get distracted. So you have total permission to be an actress and keep going as if everything was perfect – then fix it on the next rep 🙂

Great job here!!!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi! Lot s of great work here!

Tunnel versus wrap – this went really well!! You were using physical cues to support your verbal cues and that went really well. He only seemed to have a question going to his right and ended up in the tunnel a few times. It is normal that one side is stronger than the other, so the left turn is definitely his stronger side on this game.

So on the left side wraps, you can add 2 more levels of challenge for him with this game now:
– Turn he tunnel entry or change the line of the wing so that as he goes around the wing, he can fully see the tunnel entry facing him 🙂 That will make it harder to get the wraps!
– Start to fade out the body cues and do it only on verbals. Since he is so little, you might want to do this in a chair so you don’t have to bend over as much: hold his collar, say the verbals a few times, then let go so he can move 🙂 You can remain seated 🙂 Saying the verbals a few times before letting him move will help him process them without your motion.

For the right turn wraps, stay at this same level for another session (with the physical cues to help him) until he has no more errors, then you can go to the new added challenges 🙂

The advanced level is going well too, especially considering your started with the harder right turns! He does better committing to the wing after the tunnel when you step forward with the dog side leg. If that leg stays back, he is not as sure about committing. He did well on the left turns too. I think adding the verbals-only/no physical cues will make this advanced level even easier too!

Tunnel exits: well done to you for getting the verbals cue started before he got in the tunnel, even in a small space! That is not easy and he had a lot of info before he got into the tunnel. Super! His right turns here were better than his left turns – funny because he was better to his left on the wing games above LOL! But by the end, the left turns were great too. And nice job balancing the turns with the Go cue and getting the rewards thrown early!

The next step is to add wings for him to find after the exits the tunnel and also to do this in a bigger space to add more speed & motion for you both 🙂

Smiley face is looking great too – great job with the directionals on the wing wraps and race tracks!!! His commitment looked terrific on the wraps and the race tracks too.

I think you can tell hm the tunnel cue sooner, before he even exits the wrap. He was wrapping and looking at you like “what’s next?” and as soon as you said ‘tunnel’, he looked at the tunnel 🙂 When you did the race tracks, you were saying left/right and tunnel nice and early so he looked at you a lot less!

His only questions were when you turned your connection forward too early (meaning you looked ahead at the jump and not back at him). That happened on one tunnel cue and on 2 of the right turn race track moments towards the end – by looking forward too soon, you accidentally turned away from the line, so he looked up at you. All the other reps had much better connection and he did not lose his commitment. Super!!

This can also go into a bigger space… what do you have available to give him more room to run? He is definitely ready for more challenge 🙂
Great job here!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!

>. now the weather has took a turn to the cold. Very sad.>>

For real! Cold, grey, and rainy here. EWWWWW!! Bring back blue skies and sunshine!!

Looking at the video, there was a couple of things going on that caused some questions:

On the left turn reps, you can add more deceleration separately from the rotation. You had the decel and rotation happening pretty simultaneously, so she was surprised and did most of the turning after landing. Try to decel for a step or two (or three) and then rotate – the rotation will feel slow and that is correct 🙂

When you went to the right turns, I think part of what was happening was that she was not comfortable turning away from the otehr obstacles towards the fence, combined with your decel/rotation combo accidentally putting pressure on the line – you were running in more towards the bar (and less on the outside of the wing) and the sudden rotation did look like you putting pressure to the left turn side, so it did indeed look like a RC cue. If that happens and you get a rear cross, reward her anyway with no reaction abut it being not what you intended – when you reacted to it and didn’t really reward (or rewarded later), she started to stress a bit and stopped coming to you – just started guessing on the obstacles and trying to figure out the line.
Even at the end when you had big praise, she still did not come to you to get the toy.

After 3 or 4 times of know it was not correct and not knowing how to be correct, I think she was just in a vortex and was offering left turns and other stuff.

For the transition element, you can put cones on the ground alongside your line to remind you when to decel as you move forward (pretty early after she exits the wrap wing) and when to rotate (after you decel and as she gets closer to the jump).

For her, as you work out the decel mechanics, you can break it down to just a wing to wrap on and not a full jump, then just a wing with a bar without the other wing. That can help take out the rear cross possibility and you can work on the decel element (which is the main part of the cue).

Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!
Hormones might have played a role, but we would see that more consistently rather than only when there was an oopsie moment 🙂

And I think she played well with the toy when food was not as available – but when there was a pretty available food option, she was into the food 🙂

T

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

Find my face is looking good! She did really well with finding you, of course, and did take jumps that were on her line too! Yay! If she finds you but does not take a jump, no problem, you can still toss the next treat. Taking the jump is just a bonus and as she gets more experienced, she will take jumps more and more. Definitely use this in class if you ever happen to disconnect or disconnect on purpose 🙂 – you can toss the treat when she finds your face (or a toy :)) That will help transfer the game to new environments.

>>
I tried the hand touch back and forth, but it didn’t go well. She would only nose touch to one side and it was the end of the session.>>

Try different variations of it to see what feels best with mechanics (note: small pockets for easily accessible cookies LOL!). And if it ends up being an up-and-down style hand touch on one side, because she is more comfy and so are you? Cool! Perfect!

So by up-and-down, I am thinking the ‘down’ is all 4 feet on the ground (head up) and the ‘up’ is her front feet coming up off the ground to do a hand touch a little higher up. That is definitely an incompatible behavior with grass-eating 🙂 and also that bop up and down should help center her arousal state into an optimized state by raising her heart rate and shifting her into a selective and then a sustained state!

Nice work here! Now I am off to google “hackberries” because I have no idea what they are LOL!

Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

Welcome back! Great ‘seeing’ you in the zoom last night!

>>I LOVE the pattern games. This and the volume dial is exactly what we need right now.>>

Perfect!

>>She is doing the thing I have seen BCs do – stare at the dog in the ring while I struggle to get her attention. When we get in the ring, I get her attention back. (It looks very much like her looking at the sheep when we go to the sheep pen.) >>

Pretty normal young BC behaviors 🙂 I am confident she will work through things, because she seems pretty level-headed overall.

>>I have tried asking her for behaviors, but I think the best start is going to be the pattern games. We are doing those at home now & I will take it on the road soon. >>

Great! If she cannot respond to cues for behaviors, the pattern games will be a huge help. Last night we were talking about how the brain processes: when she cannot respond to cues, her brain is unable to prioritize the cues/responses when it is being bombarded by all the other stimuli that are telling her to stare/stalk/herd or simply freeze 🙂 The pattern games will help her brain shift from that divided attentional state to the selective state where she can respond. Get the patterns to be really easy for her at home, and then take them on the road starting as far as needed from the distractions.

>>I will try a different approach to tricks, too, cause what I am doing at home is not working. (high latency?)>>

Tell me more! What is she struggling with?

Looking at the sequence videos: I think she is really finding her lines beautifully and also setting up really good turns when you ask for them! That is exciting! And since she is reading the lines so well…
Remember that if something goes wrong (like a bar or going around a jump) just keep going. Getting into flow is the main goal at this stage of learning (for you both 😁). And most errors are going to be handler errors at this point, so it it better to keep going rather than stop and fix. Even with a toy or treat, stopping is a bit deflating to a BC 🙂 continuing is likely more reinforcing than the cookie or toy in this context 🙂

Looking at sequence 2:

>>We are struggling with that BC. What can I do here? If I am anywhere near the dog’s actually line, she will not take #2.>>

I think the commitment question was more of a connection question. You had your arm up high (shoulder level) and extended out parallel to your body, so she couldn’t see connection or when the blind started. As you lead out parallel to the line, be a little more lateral and lower your arm so it is pointing back to her nose the whole time. Let her see your eyes (and make sure you can see her eyes). Start by doing this and getting commitment to 1 and 2 as you move towards 3. Then it will be easy to add the blind!

You can see her trying to find the connection at :20, when she never saw connection, didn’t take 1, and then you started the blind too soon so she correctly did not take 2 (you were too early starting the blind a 1:13 as well).

You were moving towards the landing spot of 2 (towards jump 4) on a lot of these so while yes, it did get her to take it, you were in the way so she had a bar down (:04) and slowed down on the other reps to avoid hitting you (good girl, Liz!)

Definitely keep going on all of these, rather than stop and repeat. If she misses a jump, look at the video in slow motion before the next rep and see if you can see your eyes very clearly.

You had better connection at 1:20, and she took the jumps a lot better! Yay!

For the lead out push on the least rep: she read this really well! You can be more on the center of the bar of 2 when you release her so she turns before takeoff (and of course keep moving towards 3 so you are not in her way when she is jumping 2). You were on the far side of the bar (further from 3) so she turned after landing.

The rest looked great!!!

Seq 3 – This also went really well! One suggestion is to line her up on a slice at 1 (so she is facing 2 when she lands) rather than facing straight to 1 – so there are fewer turns and also so you can move away sooner.

>>BC is wonky, too. Maybe more work on the send for the jump before?>>

Yes, to get the blind tighter, send to 3 more by not really going much past 2 at all, so you are lined up with jump 4 – when she is landing from 2, send to 3. And when she looked at 3, take off towards the 4-5 line and as soon as you see her approaching 3 – start the blind.

Nice collection on the 5 jump before the tunnel!

She is looking great which allows us to play with the handling a bit, in terms of timing and connection.

Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Also remember to use your pattern games and volume dial on the way into the ring and see how she does!

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!

>> We also did some LAT…as long as the dogs weren’t running AND barking we were ok. Once both of those happen, her arrousal goes sky high and it’s difficult to bring back down.>>

If you are doing LAT, you can balance in some Up and Down too – especially if the dog she is looking at is barking 🙂 That can help her return to baseline in her arousal level more quickly.

Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!
Does she normally leave you on the startline, especially on the first run? If that normally happens – don’t require a stay on the first run. Let’s set up success! Start with a send or hand on collar followed by a ready set go! Or start with a tunnel. And you can start further from the people or ask them to move further away. That first run might be the hardest! And then if that goes well, ask for a stay in the second run.

Your plan should be to keep going even if there is an error because it was a handling error 🙂 And if she does take off and leave, yes, keep handling your invisible dog (you can even give it a name. My invisible dog is named Fluffy haha!) then when she gets back to you, keep handling her for a couple more obstacles then reward. Remember that her struggles are rooted in being concerned about things or ring stress (she is NOT naughty :)), so all of this is designed to keep you both happy and stress-free!

Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!

Thanks for the info – sounds like you took a really comprehensive, proactive approach to the end of run behavior and the results are wonderful!!

>>The show went well. Did LOTS of Fix N Go and FEO (was USDAA). It is SOOO hard for me to maintain my criteria and not continue when his Startline or contacts aren’t a faultable thing but don’t match what I’ve trained. I’m getting better but I 100% have to plan my responses/fixes during the walk through and remind myself right before I run.>>

Yes, it is hard! But totally worth it. I am sure you have heard/read the quote: “Don’t give up what you want most of all for what you want right now.” I think of that all the time 🙂 I think it is attributed to Zig Ziglar. I believe what you want most of all iis beautiful, clear, consistent, independent, fast contacts and solid startlines, to be used at the BIG EVENTS 🙂 A local Grand Prix is fun, for sure, but you know that your time while working contacts puts you in striking range of a world class competitor, so that is better than a Q with iffy criteria 🙂

>>I am waiting for him to sit on the Startline. I’ve tried letting him choose and he often chooses a stand but then can’t hold himself back. If he breaks and I ask him to come back he immediately sits so I think he feels better able to control himself in a sit.>>

That is excellent feedback from the dog! You can add in the good ol’ sit-tug-sit game (with quick releases for quick sits) – that is something I do on the way to the start line at trials! It can get the dog into a really optimized state for the actual sit-stay.

The delayed-cheeseball pattern looks good – add in disconnecting from him during the delay, as if you are looking at the course. And, are there any visually stimulating things you can do this in front of? Such as the other dogs cavorting or something?

Up and down – I loved all of your variations! Those are terrific distractions and the rehearsal was great! You can see the steam coming out of his ears LOL!! Loved it! The only thing I would add is using both hands and both feet on the up and down game – right hand puts the cookie on/near the right foot, then when he re-engages, the left hand puts the cookie on/near the left foot, and so on. That gets him moving back and forth AND his head up and down, so we are basically using ALL of the good things the patterns bring to the physiology.

Volume game looked good (with the helpful singing of the other dogs adding challenge :)) He did really well!

So now we start combining all of this crazy stuff so he is working the self-regulation:

volume dial, then a pattern game to regulate into high arousal/over-arousal then back to center.
When he is good at that, we will flip it around. More coming soon on arousal and attentional states!

Great job here!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi! I agree, you both did a great job 🙂 You had really great connection except for the ending line, but that might have been caused by this:

>> I found a hole in the middle of the course at jump #6 and was a little tentative on that last rep because of it. Will do some lawn fill work in that area LOL.>>

It was probably in the vicinity of when you needed to go blasting up the line, which might be why you were looking ahead a bit – to find the hole!

His favorite reward is running with the toy, so you can totally throw it and let him run with it 🙂

He read 1-2-3 really well! He did a great job with the slice jumping here. He needed you to move closer to the #4 blue spread jump on the line which you did on the next reps. Being a little closer made it harder to get the side change after the tunnel (2:27) but you can start the verbal on time (about 4 feet before he enters the tunnel) even if you are still moving to position to help tighten up the turn.

Ending line 2:36 & 4:04 – start saying go go go to him (you were actually too quiet there LOL!) and don’t look ahead when there is no hole there 🙂 – that was when he was looking up at you. More connection, acceleration, and GO verbals will help keep him driving ahead.

One thing I notice is that he often freezes after the thrown reward until you pull out the next one back at the start line, or call him to line up. You can help him by adding some end-of-run behavior like, after throwing the toy, you can clip on a leash, walk over to a cookie station, give him treats like it was the end of a trial run, then go back to jump 1 on leash. That can be great rehearsal for trials!

Great job here!!
Tracy

• This reply was modified 2 years, 6 months ago by Tracy Sklenar.

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!

>>We didn’t get closer while dogs were running. It was very windy and cold and there was a long time between classes with one judge. However, I do the pattern games in class while other dogs run. Getting video is harder in class.>>

If you can get video, be sure to track latency and take a note or two about how the run went right after it 🙂

>>She absolutely grabs grass at class and in the training yard. So, teaching a different coping skill is my preference. So, if I do hand touch and a tossed treat is it a back and forth game by my side? >>

Well that is GREAT that she does it in training, make it much easier for us! I don’t think I would toss the treat on this, because it is closer to the volume dial game plus we really don’t want her mouth near the grass as that could risk an accidental chain of touch hand – grab treat – grab grass 🙂 So think of it as a back and forth between your hands: touch empty hand. Other hand reaches over and puts cookie into the hand she just touched so she eats it. Then ask her to touch the other hand (the one that just delivered the cookie). Original hand digs out a cookie to deliver into the hand she just touched. You will need relatively easy access to the cookies for both hands and also there will eb a slight delay (less than 2 seconds) as you get the cookie, but that is fine because it will add in a little bit of head-up chill 🙂 Remind me to give you a visual tonight in the chat 🙂

>.How would you fade the food?>>

With the remote reinforcement game, building it all the way up to running courses.

>>I can play with leash tugs on the way to the line as well.

Yay! And she will give us feedback on that. Certainly having something in her mouth will prevent grass grabbing 🙂 But will she grab after you get ask her to out the leash? I personally use the leash as a toy like I would in the volume dial game, so I have a sense of the dog’s arousal level, and so the dog can breathe a bit too. But there are certainly dogs out there that do their best when they tug from the ring entry to the start line – that optimizes their arousal. We can experiment and see what she says about it.

>>So, I’m trying to teach a between my legs trick. Gemma loves it. Sprite doesn’t want to come in between. I’ll have to see if I can dig up a video somewhere as I’m doing something wrong.>>

Yes, grab a video. Some dogs might just find it uncomfortable (my baby whippet things it is uncomfortable, so I don’t really ask him to do it).

See you later!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!

>>I thought she was very forgiving for my bad rears – she read them all. I just should not have gotten so far ahead of her on the line.

Yes, you can stay closer to the line to set up the rear crosses. But she was definitely not mad at you 🙂

>>As you can see – oftentimes, I have trouble continuing on when we have a mistake. I just get flustered and we party.>>

Tell your instructor and classmates that your goal is to keep moving, and have them remind you mid course – keep going! Don’t stop! You will all have fun doing it and you’ll practice staying in motion 🙂

>>I will have someone film me tonight in class in case my imaginary dog needs to run with me. Is it okay to turn in those videos?>>

Perfect! Yes, I am interested in seeing it! Have your classmate film it like it is a reality TV show – from before you go into the ring, and everything that happens until your turn is over. Don’t edit it at all, it will be very insightful!

Have fun 🙂
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi! It sounds like she did really well! Good girlie! And yes, those Shelties are fun to watch LOL!! Which games did you feel were easiest for her, and/or that she could respond to the best?

>. she was out for over an hour and the stimulation was too much.

That is a long time, she might have needed a mental break. You can try a few minutes then a rest break in her crate or the car and see how she does.

>>I even got her to tug on her leash!! >>

Yay! That is useful, because it is basically like having a toy in the ring 🙂

>>One thing I realized however, I’m using “get it”
for both the thrown treat and for striking the leash. Is that going to mess her up eventually and should I change one of the words?>>

I think the dogs figure it out eventually, but we do want to avoid confusion in the meantime – so yes, ideally, you would change one of the words. I say get it for tossed stuff, and “bite” for grabbing the leash in my hand 🙂

Le me know what you think!
Tracy

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