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Good morning!
Tunnel sessions:
These were very strong sessions! She definitely had fun in the tunnel – she was very happy to offer going through it and very happy to line up to go through it. She was super fast about it all, so you might need to be quicker with the reinforcement to get her into line up position before she offers again – you can totally use food in your line up hand to get her where you want her to be, and balance the value of coming to your side versus running through the tunnel.The ‘ready ready’ line ups looked good too, I think it ramped her up even more in a good way 🙂
>>I used a treat to get her back in position each time and gently took her collar, but looking at the video I still did move her in to place with the collar at times. >>
I thought you were really good about gently lining her up before taking the collar and she seemed happy with it all! You can use the cookie sooner to get her to your side so she doesn’t mistake any little motion as a tunnel cue LOL!
>>I was not sure if she should get any kind of reward for running backwards through the tunnel.>>
Based on your position and where you were connected – she was correct to offer it that direction because the body cues presented that line. , You can reward it or you can call her back by connecting over your other shoulders and showing her your other hand so it is clear that you want her to go around it and not through it. You started doing that mainly after :23 in the first video then got really consistent with calling her to a line up spot through the rest of the video and the 2nd video, and it worked like a charm 🙂
For the next session at the training building – try to replace the MM with a toy! You can play with the toy, gently hold her collar, throw the toy to the exit of the tunnel, then send her through. That will be a fun way to get the toy involved, plus it adds in a little retrieving and cookie exchanges for line ups, so there is toy-cookie-toy work too 🙂
At home, start with a super scrunched up tunnel and the MM nice and close – and if she has a session similar to what she had here indoors, then you can switch to the toy too! The outdoor environment is harder, so making the tunnel skill easier will help 🙂
The pattern game looks great! You can add in a leash to this – not because she needs a leash when working at the training building, but because the leash will be involved when you take this on the road and holding the leash and the cookies is a royal pain in the butt haha! Practicing the mechanics with the leash is helpful because the game is ready to go to new places, like trials, etc 🙂
Strike a pose is going well too! Mechanics look good (only on the last rep were your feet pointing the opposite direction, but you caught yourself) and she is driving nicely to the target hand.
She is doing well with the cookie-to-toy element (in fact her only question was about going to the toy before the target when the toy was very visible, which is GREAT because we want the toy to be interesting!) And having it slightly visible is great for self-control. Eventually it will be on the ground, so we are folding in self-control on the toy while keeping it high value. I think she is right on track!
She doesn’t exactly always chew her treat from the start cookie, so you can use your Cato Board too as a start behavior too instead of a tossed treat.
>>JJ does not hit as hard or as fast when food is not the reward, but I felt like this was a great session.
I agree, really great session!! And it is ok for her to not hit the target that hard. Part of the reason for the softer hit is that she is preparing to turn, so it doesn’t make sense to hit it really hard (and we want her to prepare to turn :)) And the other reason I don’t worry too much about how hard they hit the target is that we will be fading out the actually hit very soon – the cue is more for the come-in, go-out of the serps and threadles so she won’t need to touch the hand. And the high value toy helps her learn to do the ‘come in’ element and not skip to the ‘go out’ element LOL!
The lap turns are looking good – really nice mechanics and she definitely knew where to drive to after getting the tossed treat!
Tandem turns are going well too – you can add walking forward to this now (you would be doing this in motion on course) so after she gets the start cookie, you can be walking showing the hand cues and start turning her away just as she gets to your hands.
>> I am wondering if my hand was too high up (not at nose level) for the tandem turn. I see JJ jumping in the air for this turn.
I think the jumping up a little was a combination of 3 things:
– puppy coordination 🙂 Turning away on the ground is kind of a ballet move and she is still sorting out the coordination
– with that in mind, on some reps your turn away cues were very fast so she jumped up a little more – so keep your hand movements sloooow for now 🙂 Your hand position was good, so yes to keeping the hand low but slow is also going to be helpful.
– when she realizes there is a destination (the prop then eventually a jump) after the turn away, she will turn away and start looking for the destination and then the little leaps upward will fade away.>>I accidentally left JJ’s prop at home : I forget the prop all the time, and I think I lost the one I started with for my puppy here LOL! You can make it into a generalization game – grab something new to be a prop, do a quick click/treat value session to kind of say to her “this is your new prop” and then add it to the game 🙂 My guess is she will nail it perfectly!
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Totally yes – the toy was a great choice of reinforcement! He is not yet a full foodie, but that will develop more over time. His sister was not a foodie at this stage either, so I used toys a lot.
TracyHi! They all worked well – the 4th one didn’t have any jumping on it, so maybe there is one missing?
His jumping form overall is coming together nicely! The distances seem comfortable for him too! It was hard to know exactly what his striding was here – you were releasing him and moving up the line, but he was cuing off of your motion so he was decelerating and lifting his head. For the next session, ideally you would lead all the way out to the Manners Minder and release him from there, so he can drive forward. If he doesn’t quite have a long enough stay, you can try it with someone gently holding him so you can lead out. And, start him closer to the 1st jump (less than a foot from it, so he powers into the grid off his rear) and you can move the MM further from the 3rd jump (like you did on rep 5 here) so he has room to land and take a full stride or two before getting to it.
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
TracyThanks for the distances! You can probably round the inches into feet now – make it a 5 foot distance to start and use 3 foot increments after that. That will start to approximate what she will see on course and you won’t need to be as precise with inches.
So the distance will be 5 feet between 1 and 2 on all reps. For the distances between 2 and 3:
Rep 2 is 8 feet
rep 3 is 11 feet
rep 4 is 14 feet
rep 5, raise the bar a little
rep 6, raise the bar a little more 🙂
and yes, you can try it tomorrow or the next day, that should be plenty of time in between. Let me know how it goes!
TracyI think you will have time when a tunnel gets added in! Just focus on adding one verbal, like a wrap verbal. That will make it easier than trying to add ALL the verbals 🙂
Hi!
He is definitely figuring out the tunnel, but you can also make some adjustments to help him out.Start by just getting play in the great outdoors to begin the session – don’t ask for anything else until you have engagement. The start of the first session was harder because you didn’t have playing right up til you were ready. You had a lot more playing at the start of the 2nd session and it was much better! He was so much more engaged.
You can help him in a few other ways, and take out one of your ways of trying to help him:
Helpful things include:
– squishing up the tunnel more at the start, that totally helped when you made it shorter. And a shorter tunnel will make it easier for you to get at the other side without you having to run (he might not be ready for you to run yet)
– Having the toy visible sooner will help too – as soon as he even looks into the tunnel, you can toss the toy to the other end of it.
– line him up straighter by tugging him to the entry so he can see it straight on. He had a lot of hard angles here, and the behavior is too new for that challenge.One thing that doesn’t help and you should take it out of the toolbox? Grabbing him to line him up or to move him towards the entry, especially when the challenge is hard. That is a big NOPE from him and he dials up an Uber almost immediately after that. So the “no touching” rule is in full effect. Tugging towards the entry? Sure! Using a hand target, or calling him over? Yes! Physically moving him by his collar or body? Nope!
>>It was also clear to me that in session two he was not really ready for the advanced behavior with the threadle – it was too much pressure.>>
Yes, I don’t think he has enough experience driving to the tunnel yet to add the threadle entry. He will get it in another session or two – and be sure to add it on a relatively straight approach, rather than angles. Also this threadle side moment is when you added in a lot more touching him and moving him which definitely contributes to him checking out.
>>The bigger take away from the training is that he is letting me know when he is done and this is probably not a good thing>>
Yes, we really don’t want to have a session that is long enough for the puppy to leave it – you need to force yourself to set a timer to keep the sessions short and fun. Give yourself a total of 1 minute then be done when the timer goes off. You need to have it on a device otherwise you will go for too long and he will leave the session, which is definitely not something we want to develop as a habit. These sessions were too long – the first one was timed stamped at about 2:50 but it was actually longer, because the video was in fast forward. Set the timer on your phone or watch, or buy a cheapie kitchen timer – but set a timer on every session. It will make a world of difference!
Also, be sure to read up on the 2 failure rule:
Setting Up For Success: Schedule Your Training And The 2 Failure Rule
I think keeping an eye on the 2 failure rule (rate of reinforcement) will also make a world of difference. Don’t let your sessions go past 2 failures, total (not just in a row, 2 failures total period). Once you get past 2 failures, the rate of reinforcement drops and then the pups get frustrated and check out. Ideally, the pups work at about 90-95% rate of reinforcement. A failure is any attempt at offering a behavior that does not get rewarded. That includes standing still near the tunnel, running past the tunnel, etc. In the first 90 seconds here, he had 12 offered behaviors and 9 failures (no rewards) and 3 rewards. That is 25% rate of reinforcement, so we need to flip that! Set up the next session where he is at one end of the very squished up tunnel and, using a super long toy, you show the toy to him through the other end of the tunnel as soon as he is near the entry. Keep doing that til he is zipping back and forth, and you can gradually delay the timing of the toy being visible (but not by a lot).
The tunnel value will continue to grow! I think these little adjustments will make it a whole lot easier! Let me know what you think!
TracyAdolescent dogs are not terribly resilient to things going wrong or to pressure… but we can make a plan to refresh everything and bring the stays back to where they were! Everything else in the training is going SUPER well so I am not worried about the stays, which is why you don’t need to worry either 🙂
T
Good morning!
>>On another topic, I have my new tunnel bags filled and ready to go, so will be working on some of the tunnel exercises shortly!>>
This will be so much easier with a tunnel – doing this game without a tunnel means the handler has to run faster and be quicker with the blinds and connections! And you were great!! Yay! terrific connection throughout, and at high speed. Love it!
Georgie vocalized a little but in more of the “THIS IS SO EXCITING” way – she didn’t have time to vocalize a whole lot when you were running because you were very connected and moving fast, so she had to be quieter to keep up LOL!
>.Still late on the blinds, but I”m trying.>>
Your timing got better and better as you worked through this setup. You were beginning to really trust her as she as moving to the wing and start the blind sooner, like at :55 (as a side note, it was HILARIOUS that she wanted to bark at you there but she just didn’t have time because you did the blind and ran LOL!! So she kind of grunted instead LOL!)
Same with the FCs – your timing is getting earlier and earlier, and her commitment is getting stronger and stronger. For example, the entire sequence from 1:10 – 1:24 looked fabulous!! Connected, nice timing, strong commitment – so cool to see it all coming together! And you repeated it brilliantly on the last rep too. Super!!!
The only thing to add here is to put more verbals in – you can add your wrap and left/right verbals. And, I don’t think you have time to praise her at all unless you are going to stop and reward. At 1:01 you told her she was a good girl, and she was confused – you can see she stopped moving for a moment until she saw where you were going next. So the on-course praise can be the next cue (that is SUPER valuable reinforcement for a BC :)) and the the ‘good girl’ can be for the toy at the end.
Terrific job here!!!!! Have fun adding the tunnel!
TracyGood morning!
>>Our session last evening was so bad that I almost did not submit this video. But there were a few nice things. My leaning over and steering with my behind was not one of them!>>
After reading this but before watching the video, I was expecting disaster LOL!! Nope, not disaster at all!!! Tons of good stuff 🙂 The main thing here is to use more connection and less pointing – the pointing forward to the wing was what was causing the questions, because it breaks connection when he is behind you and he does not know where to be. For giggles, try to run the whole thing looking at his eyes, closer to the wings, no pointing 🙂 I bet it is much easier because he is terrific when you are connected!
For example:
:39 – nice connection when he exits the tunnel and you cue the wing, so he commits really well.
:40 – he is done with the wing and you look ahead to the next wing, so he looks at you (connection is breaking)
:41 – you point ahead, connection is broken, he jumps on your back (information seeking and frustration).So try it with just eye contact, using the verbals here but not trying to send or point. As a side note, you were doing spins on the wings rather than blinds, so keep reminding yourself to turn away from him for the blinds. But the handling (blind versus spin) is less important than the connection, so prioritize the connection or now 🙂
>> I tried doing the latter grid, but I was by myself and we had several failures with him staying. Later that evening I took him for a walk and asked for a few stays, and used a few different releases. He was perfect so either it’s something with his understanding of doing it in my yard are in front of equipment he knows there is a higher reinforcement history.>>
Or all of the above! The history in front of jumps is basically about arousal. My guess is that dong a stay in front of a jump grid is more stimulating, and also a lot more challenging. Doing it on a walk might be challenging in new places, but less so because there is no jump and also less stimulating.
>>Or is this just his adolescence
Adolescence makes it harder when he gets frustrated and fails. So from now on…. no more failure with stays! Otherwise frustration gets built in and we definitely don’t know that.
So how to avoid failure in stays? Don’t ask for them in there is even a tiny chance of failure 🙂
Work them separately – on a mat or platform, on walks, in different places, on the flat with no obstacles, then eventually with a jump wing around (but not releasing to the wing, just releasing to a reward). Then you can gradually add the stays back in to agility stuff, when a longer history of successful stays has been developed. You can train the skills either with a cookie toss start, or by having someone hold him instead of a stay, for now.
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning! I definitely am liking what she was doing here!!!! Nice form!
And yes, the awkward bounce distance (reps 2 and 4) is still a weird distance, but her head position and form was much better here with the moving target – so she bounced it more easily. And the one-stride on rep 3 looked great!So – what are the distances here? Remind me, I am a little caffeine deprived LOL! I am asking because we can do a slight adjustment in the order of festivities here: using the distance in rep 3, you can make rep 4 another 3 feet wider than the distance from rep 3. She should still do a balanced one stride (or maybe 2 strides, that is fine too). And after she sees it at the lower height, you can raise the height for rep 5 by 2 inches (no need to change the distance at all since we are raising the height) and then for rep 6, either keep it the same height or if she looked very comfy, you can raise it another 2 inches. And then be done after rep 6 🙂 And use the moving target on all of these, it really produces great form 🙂
Nice work! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
>.Noticed that Changtse was slow until I said “Yes!”, then she sped up. How to incorporate into the sequences more?>>
Yes, I totally see what you mean! The handling was correct, her lines were correct (even the one time when she was on the wrong side of the wing at :45 was because you pushed into the line so she was still correct).
So looking at why she was not moving fast on a lot of it:
– the ‘yes’ is a reward marker so she definitely perked up when you said ‘yes’ – which also probably means that you will need to mix rewards in more frequently and in the early parts of sequences.
– I think the ‘yes’ markers also generally coincided with tunnels, and she was faster through tunnels here – so more rewards for wrapping wings will help balance the value too
– rewarding for the wings will also build value for when you decelerate and keep her going fast even when you are not. Whenever you took off and really ran, she was plenty speedy 🙂 When you were decelerated, she matched that by decelerating. So for now, you can get closer to the wings so you can drive more and accelerate more… and throw the toy more frequently for the wing wrapping and not just tunnels.
– as the weather gets hotter, you might find she loses steam faster with thrown toys. You can start with a thrown toy for a rep or two, then go to a thrown lotus ball with high value food. That might help keep the speed up as temperatures get warmer.The handling is going well, so we can emphasize getting more speed 🙂 Let me know what you think!
TracyShe was a brave girl in those different environments! How are the pattern games going? The field trips are good for exposing her to different environments, and the pattern games will help get engagement in different environments.
>>Not sure how much training I’ll get in with Mochi. Maybe just being at a trial experience.>>
No need to train anything at all – just being at a 2 ring trial is plenty challenging for a baby dog! Just let her experience life at a safe distance from anything that might be challenging.
>>>So, I’ll be starting to get her out with a baby class. She’s so social I’m a bit concerned about getting her to work with me. Any suggestions?
In a baby puppy class, working with you is not the goal. The skill are not important! Being comfortable in that environment is the MOST important thing. Then the next thing is seeing if she can eat cookies and play with toys (but not in the same session). And if she is too close to people or puppies, and it having trouble ignoring them? Move her further away or put up a visual blocker. Again, any skills are unimportant – it is the engagement and fun that we want!
This is where I definitely recommend that the pattern games get pumped up into good shape: I use those pattern games to bring my pups into new environments all the time so the first thing the pups does is relax and engage 🙂 The rest is easy once we have that!
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
She was definitely happier with the barrel here – cookie line ups for the win! She has really good value for the barrel so did well here. You can line up with a single cookie, no need to lure her all the way back to it, and that will help her have a moment to breathe and then line up.>>I figure since we don’t have a stay, and I can’t hold her, it’s very hard to expect her not to run after a tossed toy when we play fetch for fun and don’t want to ruin my retrieve.>>
What you did on the last rep was a good start to being able to place the toy. You just put it down and she got a cookie (I am 100% confident she saw you put it down). And you can build up to her seeing you place the toy and then get a cookie for moving away with you. Eventually it builds to tossing the toy.You won’t ruin the retrieve, because if she goes to the toy too soon, you can reward her for bringing it to you (god girl!) then you can place the toy again with quicker reinforcement for *not* going to it.
Great job!
TracyHi!
Looking at Strike a pose:
>>One treat, show her the treat, let her see it as I throw, that’s our best shot.>>
Yes, that definitely helps her, along with a visible treat and maybe one that makes a little noise when it lands. It was good clean mechanics, without rushing. Clarity is the way to go! You can also put a towel on the ground and toss the treat onto a towel, so it is more of a target for the tossed treat and easier for her to find.
>>had to put some peanut butter on the target to build up its value.>>
Ah, that would explain why she was a bit sniffy coming to it… peanut butter! And it made it harder for her to engage with the toy (a slightly longer toy might help her be able to grab the toy more too – she was interested in the toy but didn’t quite get a mouth on it all the time before you took it for the next rep).
One other thing that will help the target value is if you look at the target and not at her. Have the target out to the side like you did here, and look at it so she goes where you are looking. I am not sure the peanut butter on the target is helping much – yes, she is going to the target hand but really she is going to peanut butter 🙂 We want her to offer behavior on the least salient thing here (the target) and then get the big prizes 🙂
>>n between these vids we had discouraging session, she couldn’t find the tossed treats and just couldn’t get her in the rhythm of the game. So I regrouped, applied more peanut butter and tried again with a lot more energy, and tried to be very distinct with the treat I was tossing. She seemed to respond well.>>
Yes, the clarity of the mechanics made a big difference! For the tossed treats to start each rep, it is really hard to see them (I can’t see them at all) so doing this on a mat or tossing the treat onto a towel can give even ore clarity about where it is, so she can find it quickly.
Nice work!
Tracy
