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Hi!
He is tugging really nicely! The food drive will build more, no worries. You can be more interactive and less quiet when tugging -you can praise, make silly noises, get goofy… all of that gets built into the play and you will be able to use that when we play without toys too!
When shaping the foot target – he is doing really well here too. One small detail is to have the cookies ready before the bowl goes down. so you can be super fast with the food on the first reward. And, tuck the toy into your armpit or something for a more immediate transition there too, rather than having it up on a table.
Because he is so tiny, I recommend doing the next session on the floor so he looks at the target more and up at you less 🙂
The targeting in your hand is going well too. A couple of suggestions to make the mechanics easier:
try to leave the hand targe tout and further away from your body – extend your arm and lock your elbow (this will make more sense when you see what it is for in a few weeks :))That means that you won’t want to use the target hand to reach over and get the cookie – so use the clicker hand to bring the cookie over to the target (or don’t use a clicker at all, if you feel like you need 3 hands haha). Bringing the cookie over ot the target will build even more value for the target.
Great job here! You are off to a great start!
TracyGood news, the posts came through! My guess is that it was too big as one post.
The bad news – all the videos are marked private so I can’t start watching them. Let me know when they are unlisted and I will start working through. There are a lot of them so it will probably take me a til tomorrow.
>>I’m signing up for two of the mini brain camp courses #2 and #3. Are there any live spots still available??
Fun! I believe there is a live spot available in the “Perfect At Home” session?
Thanks!
TracyGood morning!
>>I like the idea of rotating the jump so she sees it.
That allows us to shape the concept rather than try to handle it.
>>In this sequence getting 3 the off arm is my left since she was on my right out of the tunnel. But, getting 3-4 the off arm would be my right arm as she is now on my left?
Let’s see if I have enough coffee on board:
She exits the tunnel on your right side and flips away to 3 so as she approaches 3, she is now on your left. So when she lands from 3, the right arm is now the opposite arm. So yes – use the right arm 🙂>>The off arm to get a lead change or out is new to me and one of my instructors just shook her head on Thursday when I used it for an out in class. But, it worked! She asked me if I really meant to do that. Yes, yes I did.
HA! That’s hilarious! The off arm concept has been around for a LONG TIME. But, like blind crosses, we somewhere along the way decided off arms were BAD. But the reality is that they work really well by adding clarity to the cue and making the cue very different from staying on the dog-side arm. You might get asked if it screws up your threadle and the answer is no, it will not screw up your threadle.
If the instructor (or anyone) asks about the off arm, tell them that it is from European styles of handling (because it is LOL!)
>>I might just set the 3 jumps up and send her around a cone for the “ tunnel.” I don’t have yard space for this set up at home.>>
That’s a great idea! And if you think back to the MaxPup ‘Wingin’ it’ games, you can just spread the wings about more and more and handle the concepts.
>>Plus, like I said we’ve been doing threadle training as it’s a particular weakness for me. Once she gets the concept I need either or to be sure sh3 understands not to come in unless I ask her.
I think for the threadle training you can help her by having yourself always in the picture. And for now, you can teach her that when working at a distance, take what she sees on her line. Eventually we put the threadles and backsides at a distance too (and on the other side of the dog walk :))
Have fun!
TracyThat’s so weird! It did not come through. I’ll go look at the back end of the software and see if it is hiding there?
Good morning!
Ah yes, this was harder especially when you were staying in motion. But she was getting it, especially at :37 for example when you moved very slowly.
It was even harder on the 2nd side with your motion.
Interestingly, she was sitting pretty well but with her front feet on the ground. You can try moving her plank a little bit more to center, so there is plank available in the spot where she wanted to put her front feet. I suggest this because it is possible that she is feeling very comfortable with that as a takeoff spot, which is great and we can go with it. You’ll know it is correct if she sits on the plank more easily.It is also possible that she will put her front feet on the grass and not sit even when we move the plank LOL! If that happens, you can keep moving but so slowly that you are barely moving. Try not to stop at all.
Being stimulated (with the toy) and you moving are the two hardest things for her jumping organization, so putting them in this early in training is great!!! Let me know how she does 🙂
Great job!
TracyHi!
I figured you asked about the book because of the hurricane LOL!Changste is doing really well with the zig zags here. Nice bouncing!! And the angle seemed easy for her.
The last great frontier here is going to be getting her to look at and drive to a reward target. She looks at your hands even when the MM is beeped, and definitely when you drop cookies in the bowl.
Because head position is an important element for great form, I think maybe we take food out of it entirely and go to a dragging toy. She’s done the foundation for this so I think it will work well!So lead out like you did, put the toy down about 6 feet past jump 2, release her from the stay, and move forward dragging the toy.
I’m not sure if the toy will hold her focus as long as food will, so don’t do more than 3 or 4 reps on the first session. Then we can make the angle tighter if she is looking down (or try something else if she is still looking up :))
Great job! Let me know how the moving target goes!
TracyGood morning! This whole session looked great!
One thing she did on all the reps:
She is having a little zig-zag between 2 and 3, so add a little more connection to help her straighten out that line – you had a soft connection but because she is young, you can add more dog-side arm back and more direct eye contact for now. At :40 you had a stronger connection and she was pretty straight 2-3.1st run and 2nd run, circle wraps: looked great! She was speedy on the line 1-2-3-4. You did a little decel at 4 that helped her drive in TIGHT to the wrap at 5… then she was perfect on the wrap. Very nice!!! I am loving her commitment on this skill and on all of the skills you cued on this video. Very exciting!!
3rd run, blind to threadle wrap: that went really well!!!! It is a new skill and it was quite smooth She jumped at your hands a little, maybe asking if there was a cookie or toy – but then went right back out. With more experience, she will anticipate being flipped back out and it won’t feel as rough. But considering it is a new skill, this run went GREAT!
>>Also, I’m not sure I know what to do with my arm cues to help her(?).
You did a an outside hand pull-and-flip and I think it went really well! Yo can keep your hands lower and even use 2 hands to make it look different than other cues.
4th run – backside slice – very nice! On this rep, you were supporting her a little extra so you ended up in her landing spot at :44, but rewarding her was totally the right thing (she seemed to have no concerns about it, nothing held over from the crash).
5th run – you sent to the backside more independently at :59 and she was LOVELY! You had the right amount of motion and connection, plus she is more comfy with the skill. Looked great!
And SUPER nice bind to threadle slice! It seemed very easy for her and that is AWESOME!!! We saw about 100 of these at the US Open last week LOL! And yes – if you can Fritzi nail it perfectly? No need to do it again LOL!!
Lovely work here!!!! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning! Lots of good work here, he is doing really well!!!!
Video 1:
He easily reads the discrimination and never looked at the tunnel!
On both moves you did here, you can add some deceleration to tighten. The turn:
When you did the blind, decel as he lands from the jump and then send to the 2nd jump with decel (and you can even add a ‘spin’ move, which turns your feet towards him). And on the switch away, you can decelerate as you use your arms to turn him away – that will get a nice tight turn too!2nd video: jump to tunnel was so easy for him. Super!
3rd video – VERY nice switch away to get the jump not the tunnel! And you were ahead of him again after it, which is great. YAY! You can add a little bit of decel as you switch him away and it will be s perfect turn.
4th video – the opening of the sequence looked great! You did a FC before the tunnel and I think that you will find the BC even faster and easier to do. Do it on the same line you did the FC, that was great. The backside push also looked good. He was a good boy on the blooper moment 🙂
5th video: This looked really good!!! You were on a great line for the FC to the tunnel. I bet you can trust him more after the push to the backside of 5 – send him and when you see he is heading there, turn and go to 6 (with connection of course LOL!). You stayed there a little too long so he slowed down when he was getting to you.
6th video – I love that you tried this sequence from the other side of the tunnel! He turned the correct direction on the tunnel exit, which is great! You can show more RC pressure before he enters the tunnel to help guarantee that, by pushing towards the center of the tunnel entry as he is passing you and entering the tunnel.
He as not sure about the push with you standing still, so you can try staying in motion and running a parallel line to his line: when you were stationary, he stopped. But when you started moving again right at the end, he started moving too!7th video: this was the same handling plan you used in the 5th video, and you sent to the backside and left for the next jump sooner – look at how much faster he was! Super!!! So as long as you stayed connected, you can send and leave to get the line and all the speed.
8th video: no problem at all getting him to take the tunnel as the last obstacle! You can accelerate away from the backside #5 like you did in the previous video and do the decel as you are getting to 6 to cue the tunnel. You were decelerated as he was approaching 5, so he slowed waaaay down there (good boy!) He is very good about reading your decel so you can accelerate to 6 and when he is passing the off course tunnel (and when you are arriving at 6), you can decelerate to get the turn. That should make it the perfect balance of speed and tight turn.
9th video: On this one, you can ideally be further over by the jump you want. On the FC, you did it on the landing side of 3 which was almost the same position as when you wanted the tunnel on the previous sequence. He landed a little long and had to slow down to make the turn. So you can trust him more by sending him to 3, and don’t go past the edge of the wing of 3 – be heading to 4 the whole time. That will get a great turn, take out the possibility of the off course tunnel, and keep you further ahead 🙂
10th video:
He was very happy to go take that jump without you moving! Yay! My only suggestion on this one is to begin cuing it before he enters the tunnel. As he is approaching the tunnel, you can be using your go over cues. You were quiet here til he exited, so he stopped and looked at you for a moment. If you say the cues before he enters the tunnel (then keep saying them LOL!) then he won’t hesitate at all.11th video: If I remember correctly, he has an ‘out’ cue? That would work well here, because he has to shift away from you on the flat. He went to the jump on the over, but was not 100% sure of how to approach it. And out cue can get him turned to face it better.
12th video: ah yes, I can see his question about what “over” means. Generally “over” s a jump cue on a line he is facing, which is why he almost went to the wrong jump. The out verbal will help turn him away and you can also help with an outside arm to switch him away.
13th video: looks like you helped convince him to get on the line away from you with cheese balls LOL! Yum! He was happy 🙂 He definitely thought it was the BEST GAME EVER and built up a ton of confidence to drive away from you. Yay!!! You can definitely enlist a cheese thrower as long as he doesn’t think that she is the target LOL!!! Since he was happily driving away here, you can add the out cue and opposite arm to help him differentiate it from staying on the line.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
The US Open had all of the skills we have been prepping the dogs for – which is great! And several MaxPups from the generation that is a year old than Sprite were on multiple podiums and in Finals, so I was very proud of everyone 🙂Bearing in mind that these other-side-of-dog-walk-skills rely on training and experience, I think she did really well! And it makes sense that Gemma would get it – many more years of training and experience. It makes sense that Sprite would have more questions.
>>What do I need to do with my arms and shoulders?
You were pretty strong here – the bulk of the understanding/training comes from the verbals and the experience of working at such a big distance. My only arm suggestion would be at potentially add your opposite are on the 3-4 line to get her to shift away from you. But how much of the physical cue does the dog see when working that far away especially when the dog walk is there? I don’t know LOL! And it is the only time my arms get high, in the hopes that more movement is more visible.
So looking at the training:
She did really well overall, because it is a training set up for a baby dog. Using the toy as a lure works but try to go to a thrown reward as soon as possible to get her looking for jumps and not the toy when you are saying go go go. Also, you were great about rewarding even if she was not perfect – and throw those rewards too. If you are yelling go go go or out, we want the rewards to be predictably “out there” and not from your hands. And through multiple training sessions we can finesse things so she gets all the jumps too 🙂
Some training ideas:
The 3-4-5 section was really the only hard part for her. She got the opening beautifully and you did a great job breaking down the end so she nailed that too.So a couple of ideas:
Two ways to approach 2-3-4:
Towards the end of the video, you started slowly walking up the line – perfect! You can add some movement like that to get her more used to working that far away from you without a lot of motion support. And we can shape the concepts through successive approximations but throwing the reward out to the line, even if she doesn’t quite get the jump at first. This is where you can try adding the outside line.The other thing to try is to shorten the distance, lower the height, and handle without motion! That can help her understand that da momma is not always going to move!
And eventually we meld the 2 concepts together.
Finding the 5 jump was a hard one 180 – so you can try walking into it but also, you can rotate it 90 degrees so that when she lands from 4, she fully sees it (then throw the reward to the landing side). Over the course of a session or several sessions, you can begin to angle it back to the original position. And you can also shorten the distances so you play with it without moving, then build up the distances again.
Think of this distance training as if it is a skill, like weaves or the teeter: handling won’t get the understanding going 🙂 so we have to training it systematically 🙂 She is 100% on the right track!!! Let me know what you think of the ideas to break things down. And I bet the next time you show it to her, you will see latent learning helping to cement the concepts 🙂
Great job!
TracyGood morning!
The organizer wraps looked really good – both sides seemed pretty equal and that is great. You had a really good progression here: starting close, less speed, with the MM close – then adding more speed and moving the MM further back. He only had one question when he skipped the bar to get to the MM, but having you a little closer fixed that on the next reps.
The next step would be to move the MM around more, so he does the wrap and takes several strides to get to it. Eventually you can raise the height of the bar but I think the next step here would be to move to the backside circle wraps, because they build directly off of the groove he is in here 🙂
The zig zags look really strong! Yay!!!!
>>I think he has to put just a touch more rear into it for the 8” bar and that actually makes the 2nd jump easier. Does that make sense? Or maybe we’re both just getting it figured out>>
I think he is getting stronger and figuring it out – a higher bar would tend to create problems (added strides, hitting bars) if he didn’t have the strength and understanding.
So for the next session… 3 jumps! But do that at an angle that is a touch easier than where you started on this video, so he can find his balance and power when the 3rd jump gets added in 🙂
Great job!!! Keep me posted on how he does with the backside circles and 3 jumps!
Tracy
Good morning!
This session looked good! And yes, he was being sure to NOT push on it so it wouldn’t slide 🙂 His organization looked good, so you can move to the next step where you change your position so you are in the wrap position, on the ‘takeoff side’ of the wing – the 14 number cone here is where you would be standing.
When he can do it without a lot of speed, you can move to adding the wing wrap before it – if you are on turf, you can put a yoga mat or something under the plank so it doesn’t slide because he will be moving faster and pushing off with more power. I think it will be fine on grass, though, but if not you can use a mat there too to add more grip.When you get to the wing, you can also add in a bowl or manners minder as a reward target to help keep his head down after the release from the sit. You cam put the reward target where he would exit the wrap.
And if the session on the wing goes well… onwards to adding the bar. Yay!
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyPre-Game 2:
I was very happy with his ability to keep tugging while I got the food and target out! And then go back to tugging after all the cookies! Fast transitions are hard 🙂
Like in the other game, he does better with shaping when I reward with the cookie away from the ‘thing’ so there is some action.
It is important to have the cookie ready. It is also important that I am looking at the target in my hand.
