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Good morning!
The turn and burn game here looks fabulous: his commitment is great, you were able to do the FC and run away earlier and earlier, and he was fast and tight with his turns! SUPER!!!!
One little detail for the game: at the start of each rep, line him up at your side (a cookie lure can help this :)), gently take his collar in your hand, start saying the wrap verbal while holding him…. Then release him to start the wrap. That will accomplish getting the wrap verbals attached, and it will make him even more explosive (in a good way!)
>>The wheels have fallen off Chip’s retrieves>>
I don’t think the wheels have fallen off – he is retrieving-ish LOL!! He is not completely having a party of one elsewhere on the property or refusing to come back at all. It looks like he is avoiding bringing the toy back to you, and instead is putting himself close to the barrel because he wants to do the barrel wrap again (clearly he loves the “work” here and the tugging is not as fun as the action of the work). This is fine, and normal 🙂
To help get the toy all the way back to you, you can create a little bit of a loop which will get a retrieve without looking like we are wanting or asking for a retrieve:
You will need 2 toys and some cookies 🙂
– start with tugging, then line him up at your side, hold his collar, start the verbal, send to the barrel, do the wrap, let him take the toy from you.
– While he is running with the toy, you run back to the barrel and to the starting position, and pull out a 2nd toy and call him back to you (or a treat, it is possible a treat will work better for him here). Don’t worry about what he does with the original toy – it doesn’t matter 🙂 So it is more about “get back here fast so we can do it again” and less about “bring me the toy, I need to take it from you”
When he comes back, repeat the process: tug a bit with the 2nd toy, or give him the cookie to line up, and do the steps of the game again – let him have the 2nd toy. Repeat the process (and you can probably pick up the 1st toy).
So by getting him to figure out that he can keep the game going by coming back and not hanging out on the other side of the barrel, you’ll see that he starts to bring the toy back more quickly and more directly, without us demanding it at all 🙂 Let me know if that makes sense!
Great job here!
TracyGood morning!
Tunnel games – good start with lining her up, clicking the MM, then sending her through! As you added angles, you delaying the click was helpful to her because she didn’t always know to end the tunnel if the MM had already clicked.
And using a cookie to line her up in position was much happier for her than moving her by the collar, so keep moving her into position with a cookie, then taking her collar to ststart the game.
In the second session, I think you ended up too far from the entry so she had several failures. Try to limit total failures in a session to 2 (not just in a row, 2 total) because that will speed learning and reduce frustration. Once you get 2 failures, you will then want to make the rest of the session easier then be finished. The harder angles can be saved for another session.
2nd video:
The lap turns are going well! So are the tandem turns. On the tandem turns, remember to keep moving the whole time, even as you are turning here: that was when things were smoothest. When you are turning your feet & stopping, and then using your hands to turn her, things were less smooth,I think she is ready for the prop to be added to both of these!
And with all of these games: add some toy play in too, so it is not all about the cookies 🙂
Looking at the handling combo game: She did really well wrapping the cone and then going to the toy! YAY!
I think the running round with the toy is not a problem – she was feeling some pressure in this game, with the toy behind her and you moving her by the collar, so the toy laps are a bit of decompression (she took just a few seconds). She is learning to balance her arousal , which is a good thing! I would let her do the lap with the toy if she needs it, and count to 10 in your head. If she is not back yet, you call her back and trade for another toy (or a cookie which you started doing here) . And if she does bring it back on her own, you can reward her. As with the tunnel game, line her up where you want her and then take her collar, so you don’t move her around by the collar at the start of the game.
One small suggestion: the Go element, be sure to keep moving towards the toy, so she doesn’t have to go past deceleration to get it.
Retrieve – she is doing great here! I am loving her toy play!
And using a limited space helped build up the play. One suggestion: rather than catch her as she tries to get past you, you can offer a trade for another toy as she turns towards you and starts heading your way. That will also get her to ‘out’ the toy very easily, creating a happy little loop of retrieving to a reward. And over time, you can delay the trade so that she is eventually only working with the thrown toy.Stays: These are going really well too! Releasing forward is looking good, she is showing she really nice duration on the stays so far! Great job keeping things happy and fun like you did here 🙂
When throwing the cookies or toys back to her, you don’t have to move back towards her at all – you can toss the reward back from wherever you are – that will add even more distance and duration while showing her the picture of a lead out (with you facing the way you will want to go).
She is totally ready for the tug-stay-tug version of this game (explosive stays :)). That will be very useful for her, to help balance arousal!
Great job!
TracyGood morning!
This went really well! The serps looked great, the threadles looked great (she was such a good girl to immediately get the threadle after the serp reps!!) You did a greta job setting up the session so that the cues were obvious, the verbals were SUPER different and you were able to gradually add your motion and different angles for her. I loved at the end how you added the really hard backside threadle slice!
Her only really question was on the threadles when you were moving and she was on the different angles like at 1:57 – she definitely needed the big physical cue before the release to help her get the threadle – when you did that, she had no questions at all. So as you move to position, while she is in the stay, you can already be showing the big physical cue (arm way back, or cross arm, whichever you like :)) and then add the verbal so she can move.
If you want to add a little extra ‘oomph’ of challenge, you can change the angle of the jump in relation to the tunnel so she fully sees the entry of the tunnel to make it even more tempting 🙂 Basically, you can put her on a straight line to the center of the tunnel entry (this was a bit of an angled approach here) and then line the jump up relative to that, so the tunnel is very easy to see and the jump is not nearly as easy to see 🙂
Great job here!! You and MiG are looking great 🙂 See you in MaxPup 3!!
Tracy
Good morning!
This is going well! She had an easy time with most of it. She found the 8 foot distance really awkward! I don’t think you went back to it so be sure to stretch then contract the accordion so she can see it more than once.
My guess s that as she continues to power up and muscle up in coming months that she will end up at 5.5 feet or even 6 feet a her compression distance between 1 and 2. We can revisit it at a later date, no need to change anything now, just something to consider on the horizon 🙂
>>I also tweaked the heights but wasn’t sure if I did those the right way. I put text on the video at the beginning of each change showing height and distance.>>
You had the heights coming up at the 5 foot distance, which is fine for the lower heights. As you continue to raise the height, try to only raise it now when she is at a one stride distance – minimum of 12 feet between 2 and 3, and ideally more 🙂 You can keep the distance between 1 and 2 at the 5 for distance you had here and each time you revisit this, you can start the 3rd jump further away. For example, you can start at 12 feet next time, and do 12 then 15 then 18 then 15 then 12 as the session (no height changes, just striding). And if that goes well, you can use the same distances on the next session and raise the bar of jump 3 another 2 inches.
How often to do this? Maybe once a week, no need to do it more than that. She will have plenty of other jumping opportunities so we don’t need to do a lot of grid work 🙂
Great job!
TracyGood morning!
He is sorting out the grid nicely! The line up spot was perfect! A couple of ideas to help him use his power even more:
– the distance between jumps 1 and 2 should be a bit shorter, so he bounces rather than take 1 stride. I think 4 or 5 feet should work – maybe start with 4 feet between the 2 jumps and see if he bounces it. And if it easy you can try 5 feet – the goal is that he puts his front feet down only once between jumps 1 and 2.– because his stay is still in the learning stages, working the jump skill with you moving is causing him to ask if he should be watching handling or if he should drive ahead so he is adding strides. So for the grids, you can start right next to him, holding his collar (nice and close to jump 1 like he was here). No stay needed! Trigger the MM and *then* send him through the grid to it. Triggering the MM before you let him go will get his head down through the grid. That way he can just power through, and the stay can be built up separately.
On the 2nd video (zig zags) – he bounced the 2nd distance, so that is a good distance to use (or even a little bit of a shorter distance so that he can also bounce it from a stay. The angles of the jump didn’t seem to be a question for him, so you can approach this grid the same way without the lead out: holding his collar, triggering the MM, then letting him go.
Nice work here!!
TracyGood morning!
Sounds like you have a really fun weekend coming up, for humans AND dogs! Yay! Enjoy it 🙂
>>First I have a Question. When you said add people to the leg bump game should the people be back to back so JJ moves over the legs in a circle, or should they be side to side? I was having a hard time visualizing this.>>
Oops, sorry! I meant sitting side by side, so she goes over 4 legs in a row like a straight jump grid. The legs can be 3 or 4 feet apart, with her starting on one side (and the opposite side person calls her and taps the ground) and after she goes through, you can have her come back across the leg grid by the first person calling her through and tapping the ground past the 4th leg.
Having said that, though, I think it is brilliant to try it as a circle, with the other person sitting back to back with you. Then it becomes a bending grid – it is clever and hilarious and you should totally try it!!
On the ladder video:
>>for some reason the height was no longer an obstacle and JJ was fine moving through the ladder even with the ladder flipped to the higher side. >>
Latent learning for the win! You might notice that I am very relaxed about things if that first session doesn’t appear to ‘get’ the behavior… because the neuroscientist behaviorist we wrk with tells us that learning is still happening, even if we don’t see the behavioral expression of it. And then latent learning kicks in, and we have the behavior in the next session. So cool! And I see it all the time in my whippet and whippet mix, fascinating stuff. That is why it is important that we try our best with mechanic, keep a high rate of reinforcement, and keep the sessions short – doesn’t really matter if we see the finished product behavior or not LOL!!
Looking at the video:
>>The one thing that I had to be aware of was how fast JJ went through the ladder. a couple of times she sped up making her trot no longer the nice even gate she had been doing. >>
Yes! She was trotting into it pretty well then hopping out – so the bowls will be very helpful on each side, as a focal point. You can start her in the middle of the ladder (or towards the end) and then trot out to the bowl. Then you can work backwards to have her start at the beginning of the ladder and trot out to the bowl. This will also be a good foundation for the cavalettis that we do with the adult dogs for conditioning work.
The concept transfer also looks great! Easy peasy 🙂 YAY!!! And yes, doing it in a bigger space will allow for more distance but waiting til Tuesday is fine 🙂
>>I did notice that even if I clicked as JJ was looking at the bump, I really needed to get the treat thrown out or she would look back at me. Timing is everything in most of these games.>>
Your timing was good! My only suggestion for this is to not use the clicker anymore – dogs generally look at us when we click, then that looking at us gets built into the behavior because it is happening between the click and the reinforcement. You can see her looking at you more and more here, so to keep her looking forward you can mark the drive to the jump like you did (before she arrives at it, and while she is looking ahead) but use a verbal “get it” marker and toss the reward out ahead. That will keep her looking straight 🙂
Great job! Enjoy your weekend!
TracyHi!
>> it gave me just a glimpse of agility with Georgie. I was excited about that, and a little scared. LOL.
The terror is part of the fun LOL! She is looking great 😁
Hi!
It was great seeing you and Brisket in person a couple of weeks ago!!>>How do I differentiate between random objects and actual hot zones? For example, I put the towel down to stop the treats rolling under the couch – she slammed her butt down on it and looked at me expectantly and won’t get off until she gets a treat.>>
I think two things will really help:
– clear the environment of other things to offer on, and make a big deal about what you want her to look at. For example, with the prop, have it in your hand until you are ready then make a big deal about putting it down (and make sure there is nothing else to offer behavior on nearby.– you can build up the focus on you during the in-between moments. So if you are using tossed food, for example, like with the towel – bring her back to engagement with you right after the treat by playing with a tug toy between reps.
– be sure the rate of success is really high and you are really clear with what you want. It is possible she is offering other stuff if things are unclear or rate of reinforcement is too low (too many errors, or not enough reinforcement, or both)
Wobble board – she is a brave girlie! She was not entirely sure about getting on it when she had to step on the part that was a couple of inches off the ground, so try to have her only get on the side that touches the floor, otherwise she gets hesitant.
Backing up onto the center was hard but she was dong it! Wow! It was moving a lot, so you can brace the board so it moves less (put a bunch of towels under it so it moves a little but not a lot). She definitely was offering good backing up on it, so having it move less will help even more.>>I had moved to a wooden wine rack but then realized something softer would be better,>>
A wine rack would have been AMAZING but yes, the softer thing was better LOL!
She did well with the new upright. You can totally cue the start of each rep – line her up at your side, then use your arm and leg to step to the upright to send her to it. That will give her a clear start moment, (rather than her having to guess if she should offer or not) which will also help you be able to add a little distance too!
The parallel path went well, she is hitting her target nicely! The beginning of the rears went well too – I think you can add a little more room so that she has more room to get ahead of you, so you can do the rear cross more easily. She was picking up the RCs, so if you start back by the couch and move the prop closer to where the camera was here, then you will have more room for it (or try it outside :))
On the countermotion video – she is hitting the prop well here too! One thing that will make the behavior even snappier is if you give her a very cleary defined send moment: start with her in front of you, looking at you, and you can be saying “ready, ready” – then do the send. And when you do the send, you can look at the prop too.
I think she didn’t always know when to start so sometimes she was locked onto you, and then she locked onto the towel. That was probably more of a ‘I don’t know what you want” moment, so be sure to keep the engagement with you (like with a toy after each treat, so the towel doesn’t have as much value) and get the toy involved, plus using the very clear sends can help too!Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
This looks great. Maybe this is Georgie’s FAVORITE GAME EVER lol!!! She seemed to have a great time and you were great about mixing in motion and distance, separately then together. Super!! It gave use a glimpse into what running courses with her will look like: super fast, super fun 🙂
Before she goes into the tunnel, you can start the cue for whatever is next: Go go go for the jump, or the right verbal for the turn (nice job throwing that in there!). The approximate timing of that would be when she is 6 feet before the tunnel entry, locked on to the tunnel, you can show the next handling (ike accelerating to the jump or turning for the right) and start the verbal. That will help get even more independence and distance!
And, I think you can raise the bar on the jump a little, just 2 more inches. She is ready for more but she would need more room to take off and land, so you can wait to add more height to the jump until she has a solid 18 feet on both takeoff and landing side of it.
Great job here 🙂
Tracy
Good morning! These games are looking great!
Leg bumps – these are going well! We are looking for balance and she was great with that here. With the bigger pups, the legs are like cavalettis at first but then when they figure it out, they start to bounce (which she did offer once!). For her, the next step of this can be on the turf at the training center so she can really did in (the floors being a little slippery might have kept her at a trot). And trying food can be good too: it gets her using her body properly in when in a higher arousal state.
And, you can enlist the help of other people to get a 4-leg grid going 🙂 That ay you can have bigger distances and she can bounce (and learn to ignore people while “working” 🙂 )
Looking at the ladder videos –
She did well with both the toy and the food! She was very balanced with the both when the ladder was flat on the ground. I think she was having trouble engaging with the toy because it was so close to the klimb and ladder, not enough room to really grab it and pull on it. She did engage when you asked her to put her front feet on you instead of you bending over towards her.
Getting into the ladder when it was elevated was much harder, so when using the food or toy: rather than ask her to do the full length of it, you can have her just move perpendicularly across it: start in the center, with her on one side and you on the other side. Have her just move through the one rung across it over to you and reward. You can do that back and forth a couple of times, then turn her so she can start in the middle and trot the rest of the way out of the ladder. Once she was in the ladder, she was nicely balanced!
The other thing that I think will help is a target at each end, to keep her head forward as she trots through. You can use a small bowl, placed about 3 or 4 feet past the end of the ladder. Basically she can trot through it to the bowl, then you plop a cookie into the bowl. That will keep her from looking up at you and also make timing easier. You don’t need to use a clicker anymore (it often gets the pups looking at us too much) and you can just use the target with the cookie placed on it. Eventually you will be able to place the cookie in advance, but I think if you start that way she might bound through the ladder to it rather than trot LOL!
>>If I were to lure her I am sure that she would do the higher ladder without qualms, but with out a lure she did not feel as comfortable with this action.>>
Nothing wrong with a good ol’ lure 🙂 That can help her get started. Once she was in the ladder, she didn’t need the lure. So the lure, in this case, is perfectly fine to help get things rolling. And since it is a proprioception behavior, a lure is also a focal point to get head position while she works out what to do with the rest of herself 🙂
And the toy can be used in between as kind of an excitement-inducer (to start to build up proprioception when she is more aroused) and to keep her a muscle break – this can be quite the workout!
To get the toy play going, you can move away from the ladder and toss it around a little, then come back to the ladder after a bit of play.
Resilience game – JJ says this is the BEST GAME EVER (at least here in the practice stages where it is mainly about building the framework and eating a lot haha!) Working on leash seemed to be no trouble at all. Yay! It is so important to put this framework in place and you are doing a great job!
>>I sometimes find it hard to know when JJ is actually looking at me with her black fur and dark eyes.>>
You can use her nose as a guideline: nose towards you means you can toss the next cookie 🙂
>>. I know that my timing was not always spot on, but in this environment JJ was relatively good about checking out the environment quickly and returning to my attention.
You were good! She was happy with the rate and clarity of reinforcement. It looked lovely!
>>The one time that she got behind me though it was an interesting puzzle for her.>>
This was at :28 – she was behind you a little but engaged, you can toss the next cookie when you see that 🙂 She doesn’t have to be in front of you, she can be anywhere offering engagement of any sort. This will be especially important when she is in a harder environment and she is able to offer engagement but not necessarily move to the front of you.
On the 2nd video, Yes, she was totally unphased with the new thing in the environment. I think the barking dogs in the background were a little harder but she did perfectly: assess (oh hey, there is barking!) and then return engagement. Thanks, dogs! LOL!! That is a pretty good simulation of a real world distraction 🙂
And being a foodie TOTALLY works in your favor on this one: this game can be done with toys but it is so much harder.
Now that the framework looks great, you can take the game into the real world with real distractions. Start in easy environments: enter the environment, start the game with a ‘get it’ cookie dropped nearby (you can start the game, she does not need to engage first) and then see how she does with offering engagement! You can keep the sessions short and if it is really hard (she can’t offer engagement) then you can move further from the distractions.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
Ouch! Sorry to hear about your back!!!
>>And that dog screaming was her brother running Agility in the next ring. 🤣🤣
>>It was definitely the dog in the crate (could see it) so maybe it was during a break and Stark was in the crate and feeling a bit ragey about it all LOL!! Either way, she was set back by it so you can protect her working space a bit more 🙂
Turn and burn is looking good! She definitely needs the release from the stay because, good girl, she was nt going to move without it 🙂 I don’t think she quite realizes that the wrap verbal is the release, so you can use your regular release then the wrap verbal.
She is super quick chasing you as she exited the barrel and her commitment looked good as long as you don’t say “get it” too early and pull her off the wrap (1:43) You can move away pretty early, but let her finish the full wrap before you say get it.She might have been feeling the effects of teething, because she was not super speedy about going to the barrel in this session. On the next session, if she is still showing more speed chasing you than she is going towards the barrel, you can use a ball or something as the reward and toss it past the barrel as you turn and run away (rather than have her chase you for the toy), so she drives to the barrel really fast too 🙂
Great job!!
TracyHi!
He finds the stay game very exciting LOL! I am glad you started adding some distance & duration, because staying closer to him was so exciting that he could barely keep his front feet still LOL! The lead outs looked great. The only thing I suggest adding to this is more connection as you walk away. When you walk away not looking at him, he leans a bit and moves his feet, trying to see your face. So try to walk away with more eye contact and I bet he doesn’t move at all 🙂
Your tunnel bags are cracking me up! But they totally work! He was more than happy to drive through the tunnel from different angles. He had a little question when you changed sides – probably because all of the reward so far had been where you wanted him to turn away from, so he was not entirely sure. You can take a break in the session between side changes, to ‘cleanse the palate’ of where to look for the reward, so he does not anticipate where it will be and try to go to that spot.
Since he did so well here, I think he is ready for you to add the threadle side entries, where he starts by being between you and the tunnel.
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyOnwards to tunnel threadles!
>.Two video posts in one day!? Thanks, Obama!>>
I admit this made me laugh out loud 🙂 Still laughing!
The key to being able to consistently get this behavior is to cue a wrap on the wing before it to set the line, and as he is arriving at the wing, you are already moving to the correct side of the tunnel and cuing the threadle.
Any time you did that? Perfect!
If you did not? Things went a bit sideways…For example on the first rep – your arm & voice might have been saying threadle, but the line he was on and your line of motion cued the tunnel entry in front of him. Your line of motion was a parallel path to the tunnel entry in front of him.
Compare to the 2nd rep at :05 – your line and his line were both different already as he exited the wing so he got it. Yay! I especially like how your feet were turned towards the correct line – not facing the incorrect tunnel entry, and also not rotated towards him (ideally you don’t rotate towards him as main cue, because you won’t always be there to show the rotation).
As things go faster and the wing gets added, cuing the wrap on the wing and showing the threadle info before he exits it will work best. With his speed, you don’t have time to be late or switch the toy from hand to hand (:13 & :38 for example, toy switches, no wing wrap cue, and late info so he took the off course because the cues were late and you were facing the wrong end of the tunnel on a parallel line to it.
On the reps where he got the correct end (:21, :31, for example) your threadle info was sooner so he was able to read the info. A wrap verbal on the wing will tighten the line, and on those reps you had a little rotation towards him that helped – be sure to show that before he exits the wing wrap 🙂
Nice work! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
This is a really hard skill but I think this is going super well! On the first couple of reps on the flat, you were moving your foot a little too early which might be why it felt a bit awkward: you were stepping the foot back when you released him, but ideally you would wait til he is almost at your outstretched hand then both the hand and leg move back together.
When you added it to the wings, though, you didn’t have time to be early 🙂 because he was coming at you like a speeding train. Ha! That worked in your favor and so your cues were much more timely! And the good news is that he seems to recognize the position and was doing the turn away very independently! This is great because timing and precision of hand/leg movement are less important if he recognizes the position! YAY!!! So this all went well, and his commitment to the wings looked great.
Next up – try this with the tandem turns, which you’ll probably end up using more on course nowadays 🙂
Great job!
Tracy
