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Good morning!
That toy is hilarious! I bet old shoes and socks would be great too LOL!!
He did better with the collar holding here when you just gently took the collar and did not move him with it – his first impulse was still to chew on you a bit but then he stopped when you remained stationary.
His wrap versus tunnel discrimination work went really really well!!! Super high rate of success. You can totally go to the advanced level where he does the tunnel to the wing, or tunnel to the tunnel again 🙂
Yes, you can move the wing closer but I think going to the advanced level will be more fun and he is ready for it.
Looking at the smiley face video – he was definitely pumped up and happy to play, and the extra distance made for extra running which he liked a WHOLE LOT. And great commitment too!
He did like the food toy a lot here (might have been hungry :)) and it worked well! He wanted to start without you, so you can use food reward or tugging to help him line up and to buy you some time to get ready before he starts LOL!
And I really loved your emphasis on connection here – WOWZA It looked great! For example, look at the rep from 1:22 – 1:30. Note the gorgeous connection you gave him as he exited the first wing wrap (arm back, eye contact) so he had zero questions, a tight turn, and a fast, straight line to the tunnel. And on the left turn, super clear connection from the tunnel exit through the wings – lots of speed and no questions 🙂
You can do more rewards for the tunnel specifically – most of the rewards are coming for the wings, so you can build more love for the tunnel by tossing the reward at the end of it.
He wasn’t quote ready to be done when the timer went off…. Perfect! Let him wanting more!
Since this looks great and we want more tunnel love, you can move to the tunnel exit turns game (week 2) and also the “find the jump” game (week 3) both of which has fun tunnel options and more skills to play with.
Great job!!!
TracyGood morning!
I hope your back is feeling better – OUCH!!!Check out the line up and collar hold games I posted on the course syllabus page for this week – so many pups in this group are like Rebel in that they don’t yet love the collar holding, so I added some games to help with that and also alternate line up ideas 🙂
Looking at the set point: Really nice session!
She looked so adorably shocked when you gave her permission to run to the MM. Ha! So cute! But she totally got into the rhythm of it and was happy to drive ahead. Yes, you can name the MM but also the ‘beep’ can be what provides permission to go to it (beep it before you let her go, for now).She seemed to be happy to let you hold her here! Maybe because it was predicting going to the MM? I am glad she looked so happy with it! The next step here is to try to get her front feet about 6 inches from the 1st bar, so she doesn’t put any strides in before jump 1 (adds to he hind end ‘push’ if she doesn’t take strides into it). Her coordination is looking good and that is the whole point of this game with the pups – get coordinated!
And you can move the MM further away by another 6 feet, so she strides powerfully out of the set point too. The distance here looked good (that might change as she matures because Dobes tend to have a HUGE stride in a good way :))
The wind in your hair game is going well too! It was really fun to see her figuring it out, going from jumping up at you and paw thwacking you at the beginning to actively looking for the jump by the end of it. YAY!!! Your connection was generally perfect (I think there was only one oopsie rep where you didn’t connect and she didn’t take the jump). And your timing of the reward throw was good – at the beginning, it was really hard to throw the reward when she looked at the jump because she was looking at you the whole time LOL!
But then she started looking forward sooner so you moved up your timing, like at :56 when you tossed it as soon as she looked ahead. Lovely!
She seemed better on your right side? Might be a slight side preference from her but she was pretty well-balanced overall.
>>I know with time, she will start jumping fine. But right now she’s trying to knock my hands. Once the treat went flying, it became a game. She didn’t send as well to the manners minder as she did with cheese. I’ll have to play with using toys vs food in my hand vs manners minder.>>
I agree, she will start jumping fine soon 🙂 And yes, at the beginning (and especially on your left side as you moved to the jump) she was very focused on the cheese hands and would thwack you when she was not sure what to do.
Since the cheese was more valuable than the MM to her on this game, you can give her a visual focal point to drive to, like a big empty food bowl and use your ‘dish’ cue: as soon as she looks forward after the wrap wing, you can say “dish” and run forward/toss the cheese into it. The focal point of the dish will get her looking forward sooner, should reduce the thwacking 🙂 and you can also start adding more of your motion.
You can also play with using a toy here too! Throwing the toy is always a good option, and a fun element is to place the toy on the ground past the jump and see if she will move away from it with you to wrap the wing and then drive over the jump to the toy. That is a nice little impulse control moment so feel free to use food rewards to reinforce her for moving away from the toy on the ground 🙂
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
>>My current one (which cracks me up) is I yell “serp!” and rely completely on body language and Frankie loves serps, so she reads them well and everyone thinks I have a 3 jump verbal! Bwahahahahaha! I>>
Ha! Brilliant! I love calling things what they are LOL! A friend of mine has several different breeds, so she doesn’t call their names on course (because, who can remember which dog it is when you are running 5 LOL!) so she feels their breeds: “TERRIER!” For “KELPIE!!!” So funny!
>>Do you give a directional on each jump of the serp line?>>
Depends on the dog and what they respond better too. A more ‘verbal’ dog can hear the lefts and rights (or sometimes wraps, depending on how hard the serp is). Other dogs do better with name calls. We get it all figured out as we build this up into bigger sequences.
>>We did our first session of Sends & Serps! I was happily surprised that she read it. When we tried it a few months ago it was very hard for both of us. >>Yes! She looked great!!! What a difference a few months makes!
The serp part on the first video looked terrific!
>>She wanted to go fast, so I tried to keep up with her. I’m not sure I really succeeded in opening my shoulders and keeping my arm back.>>
I think as the serp jump gets angled more and more so it is harder, you will be able to work more on the upper body facing the jump. This line was easy for her, so she was going 10,000 MPH and there was not much time to do anything besides run LOL!
The only hard part was the sending to the wing on the first video – if you were not big enough with the step to the wing and the connection, and if you tried to turn too early, she didn’t commit. But when you held connection and did a big step to the wing like at :57 and 1:00, perfect!
Nice reset cookies when things went awry – with handling games, we are making all sorts of little adjustments so those reset cookies help keep her happily in the game with us 🙂
>> I lost connection with her on the wraps and remembered to look at her & BOOM! It worked.>>
Yes! That was a great adjustment and really helped her start to differentiate the wrap on the wing versus the soft turn to the serpentine.
So the next step is to make the serp jump a little flatter, maybe by 6 inches? That way you can gradually angle it into the difficult “flat” serp jump.
Her lead change game looked great too! Having built up her stay really helps because you were able to lead out as far as you wanted. And the cool thing here, too, was that she was able to do all the in-and-out with just arm cues rather than needing you to turn your feet. Most small dogs need feet to help them, but Bazinga did not. Yay!!!
I didn’t see any lead change questions from her – her only question was when you were not quite all the way at wing 3, and she was not sure if she should go past you to it. But that question got answered when you were closer to wing 3, no problem.
So the next step for this game is to bring the wings closer together so she gets to practice doing her lead changes quicker and quicker. Move the wings to 4 feet apart and see how she does (your cues will need to be quicker too). And if that goes well, you can eventually move them to 3 feet apart for ultimate lead change quickness!
Great job 🙂
TracyGood morning! Lots of good work here. And happy birthday, Reacher!!!!
Set point – his form is looking good, this distance seems to be the sweet spot for now (it might change as he matures). He just needed a reminder to hold the stay until released – the dragging toy is tempting! The jumping form was best when he broke the stay on the first rep though LOL!!! But the moving target definitely helps him keep his head low and form nicely rounded.
One suggestion is to make sure he is looking at the moving toy before you release – at 1:32 he was looking at something else and the form was not as good on that rep. But overall he is looking good – the early reps in the session are better than the last rep in terms of form, which might mean he gets a little fatigued (it is a workout!) so you can do 2 or 3 reps, take a break, then do another 2 or 3 reps rather than do them all in a row.
Next session – outdoors, weather permitting 🙂 His mechanics on grass will be different. And yes, a bar to replace the towel is good but the towel was very useful here!!!
>>I agree he doesn’t really like that, but he bites me all the time even when I don’t have him by the collar. He’s is just SO bitey!>>
Yes, some pups are very mouthy at this stage, I am glad to hear he is getting better! On the course syllabus page, I added several games to improve the collar grabbing and lining up. There are a bunch of dogs in this group that have the same feelings about the collar grabbing 🙂
>>Finally it’s not raining so we could get back outside!
This video is the first video from last week – can you repost the new video?
Smiley face video:
>>Again, I had a bit of collar work but I seriously was being much more gentle than I think it looks on video, both in this game and the next one below.>>
You were being gentle indeed, but you were moving him around by the collar on some of the reps and I think that is what he was uncomfortable with.
The best starts in terms of happy collar holding were when you tugged with him til he was in position, took hold of the collar and started without moving him around.
Nice connection here on the sequences! Great job with the verbals!
>>It wasn’t terrible but but also he wasn’t all that excited.>>
It might be that the distances were a little short (so you can spread the wings out further from the tunnel). Also, the toy reward is coming relatively close to you, so he is going fast to catch up then decelerating to get the toy near you. You can throw the toy to different places especially ahead of you, to get more acceleration past you on these lines.>>I actually am starting to think he’s the first dog I’ve had that isn’t really a big fan of tunnels!>>
He was good about committing to the tunnels for sure! Yo can get more acceleration into the tunnels by doing a few sessions of rewarding the tunnels heavily by having the toy landing at the tunnel exit, regardless of where you are. That way he can leave you in the dust and drive to the tunnel even more 🙂
>>BUT ALSO – I was a very bad handler and I forgot to put that toy in my pants today so that I could not switch it in my hands. I noticed that right away upon watching the video and was so annoyed that I forgot that!>>
Or, carry a toy in each hand! That way you don’t have to remember to put it in your pocket and you can’t switch it from hand to hand.
Looking at the Wind In Your Hair games:
He did really well with the concept and framework of the game, so now we can start hitting the gas pedal and getting even more acceleration ahead of you 🙂
With the thrown toy on the first video, he was watching you more and moderating his speed to stay nearer o you and the toy in your hand. So to get more acceleration, you can make it more of a toy race – rather than throw and decelerate, throw and race him to the toy and if you get there first: dance party of one, starring you 🙂 My guess is that he will quickly realize that he might lose the race, and turn on more speed to win.
I think the placed toy on the 2nd video produced more speed for sure!! And you can still race him to it… you both know it is there so you can make it “whoever gets there first wins” scenario 🙂 Plus there is the impulse control element of having to wrap t he wing before driving to it (although his cheating moment was hilarious :))
>>Again, I tried to be super gentle with the collar but he sure made it look like he was being a bit man-handled.
He was aroused (that is a good thing!) and that is when the pups protest being moved by the collar more than usual. With that in mind, this is a good spot to smooth out the line up so you can hold him but don’t need to move him by the collar:
– Tug him into position where you want to start
– Put a hand on the collar, facing the way you want to go so you don’t have to move him
– Throw the toy to the spot you want. Now, that can prove tricky so you can challenge him a bit more by placing the toy then having him walk with you back to the starting point (SO MUCH HARDER!) rather than move him by the collar. You might need to use food rewards to help him learn to NOT drive to the toy on the ground while you move to the starting position, but that will allow you to get the toy placed and line him up to start.Great job here!! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
I am really glad you played with this, things went really well! The wing wrap start was great, you made excellent adjustments to add more connection any time she had a question, and it looks like you didn’t run into or trip on any of the tunnels 🙂 She did a terrific job of staying on the side you cued – that is a lot harder than it looks!
The first couple of reps with the smaller/single tunnel looked great 🙂 Your connection on those was really clear: arm/hand pointing back to her nose, dog-side shoulder open to her. She knew exactly where to be (like at :12, for example).
The giant double tunnel was harder – on the first couple of reps you were ‘closing’ your shoulder too early (looking ahead/facing forward) like at :19 and :25, so she read the shoulder movement as a blind cross cue and changed sides.
Excellent adjustment from you, your connection at :35 was great – you did not get as far ahead and and kept your arm back to her for longer. The toy in your dog-side hand helped you get your arm back to pen up the connection more clearly. She did no seem to be focusing on the toy; instead she seemed to be reading the connection very clearly.
Then you nailed the next reps on the regular circle. Super!!!
On the next couple of reps, you were doing the blind cross between the tunnels – getting a bit too far ahead was causing the questions. When you were already passing the tunnel as she exited the wing at 1:03 and 1:11, it looks like she couldn’t see enough of your physical cues (she could only see your back and your motion) so it appeared like you wanted her on the other side of the tunnel. That could have been her seeing convergence that direction, or going a little wide to try to find connection.
Excellent adjustment at 1:18 and 1:27 to show her more of the connection to get her to the correct side of you! And then 1:38 and the last rep were SUPER nice with the connection to get her on the correct side followed by the blind. Well done keeping the shoulder open so she could see where to be, then a really clear blind so she could change sides. Yay!
You can totally add doing 2 tunnels in a row: shadow handling around 1 tunnel, blind cross in between, shadow handling around the other tunnel. And you can add the ‘inside’ turns where she is between you and the tunnel.
Great job!!!
TracyHi!
These 2 videos also look really strong! Your left/right verbals sound very different from the GO verbals and that can be super helpful for him.
On the 2nd video, you were starting the left verbals before he went into the tunnel (yay!) and you can also add the physical cue at that same timing, so he sees you moving away to the left turn wing before he enters the tunnel.On the 3rd video, you had good timing of the verbal AND physical right turn cue. Nice! You can play with seeing if you can start the cues when he is a solid 6 feet away from the tunnel entry – just how early can he get the cues and maintain tunnel commitment?
For the GO reps, you can throw the toy even sooner so it is landing while he is still in the tunnel. He was exiting straight on the Go reps but looking back at you, because there is nothing else to look at 🙂 You can try having a placed toy out there, which will be a good challenge to see if he can ignore it on the turn reps and drive to it on the GO reps (and a ‘get it’ marker can help a lot too).
One thing I notice is that his head is in a good position on the turns in terms of looking the new direction but he is fish-tailing on the mats (butt swinging out wide, shortening stride to avoid slipping). So as he learns the skills, try to get him on as many grass/dirt surfaces as possible so he can sort out the mechanics of he turns.
Great job here! Le me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
Lots of good success on all 3 of these videos!
>>figuring out how to get him to let me hold him.>>
He did really well with lining up and letting you hold him. One thing to remember is that as soon as you are holding him, you should get right to business (start the verbal, then let go and start the motion). He is definitely not the hugs-and-kisses type of dude (most BCs are NOT interested in that when getting ready to work) LOL! A food reward might be fine, but resist the temptation to praise him and pet him while you are holding him, because even though it is intended as reinforcement, he might find it averse and might start avoiding being held.
Because so many pups in this class don’t want to be held or lined up, I put together some videos for ideas on how to build the love for being held and other line up options too, so we don’t always have to hold them and so they move into a stay happily. It is here:
On the first video here, the 2nd rep had earlier timing of the GO verbal than the first rep (you started the GO before he was in the tunnel on the 2nd rep) so definitely keep going with the early timing. He is driving through these really well so we can play with just how early you can deliver the physical and verbal cues.
Nice work!
TracyHi!
Yes, the weather has been pretty gross!! Hopefully it clears soon.I think because Pesto is so young and small, we should keep the bars at 4″ for a couple more weeks til we get more sessions of getting his head low. We want to blaze those neural pathways of jumping form for a while before we add more height to the jump (he will have no problem with the bars coming up when he is old enough). Contraband had ascending bars because he was 20″ tall at the time 🙂 and had good head position and form. Elektra’s bars stayed low for a long while as she learned better form.
Tracy
Good morning!
I see what you mean about the connection on the left turns versus the right turns! I watched it a few times, and I think here are two things happening to make the difference between him easily finding the line on the right turns (at the beginning) versus his questions on the left turns:
– he might be a righty 🙂 so the right turns are easier and more fluid for him and the left turns requires longer processing time and a more delayed response.
– you might be more comfy on that side too, because on the left side you are stepping backwards to get into position for the FC and that backwards motion is what is supporting the line he takes. You didn’t do the same backwards steps on the right turns, you were more forward on the line. And when he reset for the left turns, you stepped forward and he got it correctly each time.
So keep the forward motion on the rights turns, and you can set up the left turns so you are further away from the wing to start – that way you can step directly forward for the FC and won’t need to step backwards at all. Let me know how he does with that!
The other thing that will help with connection on the left turns and on both sides is to show him the toy with the opposite arm, across your body – that will open up the connection a lot more and makes your line even more visible.
Here is what I mean by that:
When you revisit this, you can add a little more distance between the jump and the wing, so you can run more especially on the right turn side 🙂 (try to work up to over 20 feet apart, maybe more) and also so you can add the Go Go Go verbal too! I think he is totally ready for that.
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
He did really well with the wind in your hair game – He is definitely wanting to get to work! And he is doing super well with wrapping the wing and finding the jump, no questions at all.>>I also realized afterwards that I was doing a backside wrap and I don’t believe you were in your demo.>>
That is fine, any wrap can work for this game 🙂
Since he is doing so well, definitely spread out the wing and the jump so he has more room. The goal is to have them 21 feet apart or more. That will give you a chance to start moving more, add the verbal, and throw the reward sooner so he doesn’t look back at you (throw it as soon as he looks at the jump after exiting the wrap, rather than when he gets to the jump).
>>you will see Zyp’s excitement is hard for him to control. I would love to do a collar grab beforehand but he does not like to be restrained and will avoid me if I do it too many times. I>>
Yes, he is very excited to play and that is a good thing! He wants to get right into the game and offers a lot of behaviors before you are ready, so asking him for the tricks first like you did in the last couple of clips was very helpful. Also, to keep him with you rather than him offering obstacles, you can bring him into the session with some play first, tugging with you, then line him up as you tug (and trade for a cookie to get the toy back, if needed).
About the collar grab and lining up – it turns out that a whole lot of pups in this class share his opinion of being held by the collar LOL!!! Since it is an important tool to have (and we don’t want the pups to avoid the handlers when we reach for them), I put together and posted a series of videos on how to improve the collar grabs and also other line up methods. That should give you some ideas and fun games to play to help him line up happily for training. You will find it here:
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
>>I’m relieved – thank you! I’m not big on marking mistakes, but sometimes they slip out. Does it help them to learn to mark the misses (nicely)? I guess it depends on the dog. I don’t want to squish her spirit. I usually just reset & try again.>>
For something like a broken stay, it is OK to very nicely mark it and reset her because you are going to reset her anyway, so might as well mark the moment as long as it is nicely done 🙂 For handling bloopers? I don’t mark those as dog errors because 99% of hte time, the dog is reading us himans correctly, and we are the ones that are messing up. So for handling stuff, either just keep going, or reward her.
The set point is going well! The stay isdefinitely better with you standing up, and the MM is a great focal point her for.
The 30 inches seems fine but it might expand a little when you add the moving MM (which you can go ahead and add :))>>She knocked the pool noodle a few times.>
I think that was because she was having a little trouble with the plyometric liftoff to the first jump. Try having her a couple of inches further away and see if it helps her? She might have been a shade too close here, so she was not quite able to clear the 1st jump.
>.I have not put bars up yet for her, I wanted to hear when you thought she was read>>
I think the order of festivities should be:
– first add the moving target MM-on-wheels with the noodles for one session
– then if that goes well, go back to the stationary MM and put a bar in on the 2nd jump as low as possible and see how she does!This is the kind of thing to try every 3 days or so, so she has time to cement the learning with latent learning too 🙂
Nice work! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
Thanks for the update! She is doing well.You can use a cot and reward her for staying on it, but you can also send her into her crate and shut the door (with are ward too) so you can reset and not worry about her bopping around or jumping in the pool or climbing the contacts. I am glad she is confident but you might need to put an x-pen around the contacts so she can’t use them as a playground LOL!!
T
Hi! The videos are generally too large to attach directly. The easiest way to do it is to upload to Youtube or Vimeo, then copy the URL link into your Forum thread. That will be easy and fast to get the videos loaded.
Tracy
Hi!
He is showing really good commitment to the tunnel and wings, and he is very game to run fast and play. So we can totally look at timing and connection to smooth this out.In terms of connection: when you were connected, no questions from Kaliki! I think you were trying to show the line between the wings too much with a high arm (shoulder height) and looking forward, which blocked connection so he looked at you a lot. Try to have your arm low so you hand can point at his nose and look at his eyes the whole time. That should keep him looking at the lines and not at you 🙂
This is especially important on the tunnels – when you are going fast and disconnect before he goes in, he runs past it (like at :21 and 1:45), trying to look up at you. When you are connected (like at :27 and the other reps) he got it really well!! And the same on the tunnel exits and FC exits – when you were connected to him and not looking at the wing when he exited the tunnel or was finishing a FC, he had no questions. Yay!
So make your connection to him more important than you moving fast at this stage – that will both support his commitment and test it a little because you won’t always be ahead of him.
For the timing:
On the tunnel exits, you can put a line on the ground (like a leash or something) about 4 feet or more before the tunnel entry – that is when you should be saying the turn cues or the go. He needs to hear all that before he enters, and the line will give you the visual – as he is crossing over the line before the tunnel entry, he should be hearing the directional. You were tending to start them when he was already in the tunnel, so he was guessing a bit on the exit and looking for you rather than for the wing.For the wing wraps, his commitment and turns are going well – I think you were trying to run fast to every wing, which sometimes sent him wide because of the acceleration or sometimes caused a question because you didn’t turn to the wing (like at :48 and 1:28). So you can add some deceleration as he is passing you to help cue the turn which should make it smoother. And if something goes wrong? You can reward and reset, or just keep going to the next wing or tunnel and reward that. He is doing a great job of reading the cues, so if there is a blooper, it is handler error LOL!!
I think spreading things out might make it a little easier too – having the wings about 18 or 20 feet from the tunnel will give you more time for the connection and cues. And he is super speedy, so having more time will definitely feel comfortable!!!
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
