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Hello and welcome back!!! I’m excited to see her work!
The Sniffspot sounds great – you can fit these games into any dimensions, but working in a larger space will super fun and add a little spice to it all đHave fun!
TracyHello and welcome!!!
I think your connection with her on course is super strong already, so we can use this time to really crank up the commitment and trust! Have fun!!
TracyHello and welcome! I’m glad you are here, and I’m excited to ‘meet’ Kashia. I LOVE Brittanys!
If you have any questions about using the site or loading stuff or online training, feel free to ask here or email support@agility-u.com. Jeremy is our support guy and he is great.
Have fun!
TracyHello and welcome! Happy New Year! How is she 15 months old already?? I love it!!
Have fun here – the competition track should be perfect for her!
TracyWelcome! This should be a great way to build communication with your baby girlie!!! And I believe she is related to two of the demo dogs (Voodoo and Jitterbug, who are not in the week one games but will appear in the others đ )
Have fun!
TracyHello and welcome back! I’m excited to see you two work through the competition track!
Have fun!
TracyHello and welcome!!! I’m so excited to watch you and Sieger here. I think you’ll find it complements the MaxPup classes nicely đ
Have fun!
TracyGood morning and welcome!!!!
Yes, the photos show up from other accounts linked to gravatar. I sent info on how to load or change it in the welcome email this morning.
Have fun!
TracyHi!
>>I forgot to thank you for offering to let my friend join the class late. She ended up deciding to do an independent study class instead since her pup is already doing sequences.>>
Yes, thanks for referring her! She ended up doing an independent study MaxPup 2.
Strike a pose is going well! He was coming in over the bar then going back out really nicely in both directions đ Yay!!! And he got onto his toy at the end: SUPER!!!!
>>The only issue we had was that putting an actual treat in the target bowl before asking for the nose touch was too hard, so Iâm using an empty bowl and then I toss the treat into it.>>
That is fine to do! You can also use the Manners Minder as the reward target. That will help with the threadles too! You can also work just a hand touch to the target when there is a bowl with a cookie on it on the ground nearby – it is a good skill to play with!
>>The only other thing I noticed is that my pose doesnât look all that much like I think it will when Iâm running. >>
I think you did a great job with your upper body cue – it was very clear and you held the position as you dropped the treat in the bowl. You can make it more âserpyâ by pointing your feet to the reward target (the direction youâd be running towards). That will also transfer well to the threadles (pointing your feet to the exit line/reward target there too).
Great job here!
TracyHi!
>>Iâm laughing this morning watching the video. She can only stay if she belly punches me first⌠>>
1. My question is should I try and get rid of this? >>I have no problem with it as long as it doesnât hurt and doesnât include biting! My year old BC mix does it too and it is pretty hilarious. My whippet clacks at me when I cue a sit⌠then he does his sit. I find it all entertaining and I also know to let them do their thing before I lead out.
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>>2. I took notes on your comments. I am as impatient as my dogs. I NEED TO WAIT BEFORE TOSSING TOY.>>Just a heartbeat of waiting needed. I say that to myself too ALL THE TIME: say the word THEN move the reward. It is hard for us humans LOL!
>> I canât believe you did not mention the fact that I used 4 different markers for the same behavior⌠arrg. I need to tell myself before I start which cue and be more consistent.>>â¨
There were a couple that were not quite in the right place but most were fine đ>> I am torn about the throwback if I should use a different cue for food VS toy and a different cue for thrown back VS anywhere.>>
In the spirit of NOT needing 10,000 marker words, I use the same word (âcatchâ) for throwing food and toys back to the dog. I mean, they see what I am doing so there is no question from the dog. I donât ever proof to a crazy level (like throwing a toy but saying a cookie word and expecting the dog to NOT take the toy – that seems rude LOL!) so I trust the dogâs understanding of context. And my dogs have no questions about it.
I have a different marker for thrown ahead (get it) and like âcatchâ I use it for food and toys. And also like âcatchâ – zero questions from the dog.
The only different food versus toy markers are when they should drive to me hands to take the reinforcement: I want the dog to know if coming in HOT for a toy is happening, or coming in gently for a cookie, so I use different words (âbiteâ for a toy and âyesssssâ or âsnacksâ for food).
>>Get it- is treat thrown (forward or to the side- could be back)>>
It can be, but since there is movement involved, I like to differentiate between move forward (get it) and stay there/look behind (âcatchâ).
>>Is it bad if I just use âget itâ for the treat (meaning it will be thrown somewhere) >>
I think somewhere is too vague. Part of the joy of markers is that they indicate clear placement (like look ahead for it) so if it can be anywhere, that dilutes that value.
>> Lucky for my agility dogs so far I rarely use verbals (because I would obviously use the wrong ones) but I want to do everything I can to help Taq run as fast as she can.>>
You will have plenty of practice with Taq! And plus, you can use the verbals with the adult dogs just to practice them even if they donât know what they all mean đ
Tracy
Hi!
>>I tried removing the pillow and the wobble board became a little too intimidating.>>
Yes, it was a big leap for her to have no pillow so it ended up being a session more about getting her happy on the wobble board, so that was really good! She was confident with getting on it and turning around and assuming the position for backing up, and then was able to do a little front end backing up with her back end staying stable, then some reaching back with her hind end. Super!!
For the next session, you can split the difference: have a the wobble board a bit propped up (about where it ended here, that worked well!) and I bet she gets the backing up going again really well. A little bit of latent learning will kick in and she will be backing up onto it again.
Great job!
TracyGood morning! Happy New Year!
>>I had things going on and then was course building for 4 days plus 32 runs!>>
All good! I am sure you were a little busy and also that Taq got to do some good stuff in the crazy trial environment đ
The 2 perch sessions went really well!! You are starting to get some independent foot movement on the perch – she did best when the rewards were tossed to the side and she then offered pivoting back to center. So definitely keep going that route! When you were waiting for her to offer it when already on the perch, she offered a tiny bit of movement. When she was pivoting back to center after a tossed treat, she had a lot of steps! Yay!
You donât even need to reward in position – you can do a session of clicking then tossing to the other side, so she moves away, gets the treat, then pivots back to center (then get a click/treat toss to the other side).
Try that for a session and then I bet we can add something for her to step over as she pivots, like a bar taped to the ground so it doesnât roll.
Stays are looking really good too! She was PUMPED UP (occasionally punching you in the gut before she sat LOL!) but still had lovely stays.
Adding duration went well – try to have your toy hand in a natural position (you had it curled up by your shoulder) so that way the toy hand position doesnât accidentally become part of the cue. You will want to be able to walk away moving your arms, so you can add that in here in tiny bits – small movement then a bit more duration then reward, so she doesnât think the movement of your arm is at all related to the release.
The same thing applies for walking away without connection then re-connecting. If you disconnect then re-connect, always praise and/or wait a few more heartbeats before the release, so she doesnât pair the reconnection with the release and self-release by accident.
She figures things out so quickly that these little details will make a big difference! Plus also be sure you say your marker then wait a heartbeat then throw the toy (rather than throw as you say the marker, which might make movement part of the release).
Great job here!
TracyGood morning! Happy New Year!
“”Weâre not as far behind as it seems. I just have a backlog of videos to submit. Weâre actually going to be starting on Week 7 later this week.””
You’re doing great! And this is a light week in terms of new games (one of which builds on what you did in this tunnel video :))
Super strong session here! I think you did a really good job releasing when he looked at the tunnel (you are totally correct in that he will look back at you pretty quickly!) and also, when you got a little too far from the entry and he did the spin, great job making the entry a tiny bit easier and he was great
The threadle side is definitely harder so you had to hold your position until he was definitely heading into the tunnel – on the rep at :35 when he did NOT going into the tunnel, it was because you stepped away before he was really committed, so he came with your motion. But he wasn’t just going to the MM there – note how he did the tunnel the other direction and ignored the MM LOL! That is rewardable, especially because the threadle verbal is not in place yet – so he was not wrong to go to that end of the tunnel on a tunnel verbal.
So the next step here is to add your tunnel threadle verbal so he can differentiate between the tunnel on his line, and the other side of the tunnel (then you can check out the new game added today that uses the tunnel threadle and I think he will find really fun!!)
>>Having the TT behind him was super hard, hence all the squealing. >>
Yes, he was PUMPED UP lol!!! But even though it was hard, it looks like he was super successful! Yay! You can also try this with a placed toy instead of a MM, if he finds a placed/’dead’ toy to be motivating. If not, you can stick with the MM.
>>I see that Week 7 has a remote reinforcement game, so hopefully that will help make setups like this one easier.>>
Yes, it is the very beginning of working away from a placed reinforcement.
Great job here! Have fun!
TracyGood morning!
>>with some tugging in between sides I cut for time>>
I keep forgetting to mention – you donât need to edit out the tugging for time. It is fine to leave it in and probably easier than editing it đ
The threadle session looked fantastic! I think she is really beginning to understand that in in means in THEN ALSO back out and that is a critical part of it. Great job with your reward marker and placement to help create that.
You can see at 1:01 and 1:30 that she was coming in and going back out in flow without needing extra help or cues from you⌠this is exactly what we want đ So you can now start to delay your âcashâ marker until she turns her head to the jump.
>>The 2nd to last rep made me laugh haha! Smart girlie!>>
That was awesome LOL! She decided to go fast, almost messed it up, but then nailed it (and went back out to the bar on her own there). SUPER!!!
So 2 approaches for the next steps: you can keep the easier angles and add in the advanced level where we show her the difference between the threadle slice and the serp (by changing your position and verbal). And, separately, you can do a session where you change her start angle so she figures out how to threadle from any crazy angle.
>>And to answer your question from the drop in class at the new facility, the instructor was Grace Huffman.>>
Cool! Regular drop ins would be great just to get Vesper out and about in those settings, or even a class! I always enroll my pups in a class that is one level below what I think they can doâŚ. That way I can set them up for BIG success in a harder environment and not worry about the skills.
Great job here!!
Tracy
