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Hi!
This was indeed a lovely Christmas gift LOL! And the barrel games that I saw on Facebook looked great too 🙂 I am glad you have access to the club, that must be so nice in the winter!!!All the reps looked really good (two bloopers, more on that below)! You can try using a Manners Minder instead of a cookie toss to start the game, so you can better predict when she will begin moving towards you. And, one mechanics suggestion: keep your serp arm out until she has arrived at the reward bowl, to simulate what the physical cue would be if there was a jump there instead of a bowl. That arm back & shoulder position is what cues the line to the next jump, so it is good rehearsal to keep it back and out here too. You can drop the treat in with the other hand or you can delay the treat drop a tiny bit – the timing of the reward is less important than the arm position on the serp.
The 2 bloopers were timing issues (1st rep and at 1:28). On both of those, you started moving too soon so by the time she committed to coming towards you, you were past the exit wing (so you got a threadle based on the first angle, and she ran past it because of her angle at 1:28). So stay in position til she is on her way to you, or:
>>what I really need now is stays. So I’ve started working on that. I can do that at home too.
Yes – if she doesn’t have a stay yet, it is time to prioritize it especially if you’ve started sending entries out.
>>Warning-very unhappy terrier in the background.
Ha! Barely noticeable LOL!!! Just the sad song of the terrier people.
Great job here!!!
TracyGood morning! Hope you had a great holiday weekend!
She looked awesome on the zig zags! Were the bars 16” at the end here? She looked really strong on all of them. Yes, there was the one bad line up but also on that rep: it looked like it was the only rep where the toy was stationary until AFTER she was landing from 1, then you started to move it. The distraction of the toy starting to move was probably a contributing factor to the bar down. But it definitely goes on the list of good distractions to show her! If she was planning on the toy remaining stationary then it started moving, it makes sense that she couldn’t process it at her speed. But that is a common human error that we all make: sudden shifts to acceleration. So you can take an easy version of the zig zag (lower bars, easier angles) or even on one jump: and show her the sudden accelerations 🙂
Organizers: these are looking great too! Clear mechanics from you, and her latent learning kicked in so it all looked strong. Yay! I suggest adding in 3 more things over the course of the next session or two:
– using food, more motion from you: move in and out of FC wrap handling while she moves in and out of the sit on the plank. This should be easy for her.
– get a toy involved so she is more stimulated. The challenge is: can she be this organized while more amped up? So when you add the toy, use the calm mechanics and minimal motion you used on the video here.When she is happy with more motion using food, and more stimulation with the toy… use the toy AND more motion. Yay! You might be able to add more motion with food for a couple of reps, then less motion with the toy, all in one session.
When she is happy with that… start fading the organizer. I use both versions of fading: using the wrap verbals to let the pups run through the plank, and removing the plank and asking for the sit on the ground.
Backside zigzags:
These are the hardest version of the zigzags for sure! Looking at why she was ticking the bar (she ticked a little when it was on her right and a lot more when it was on her left), 3 things stood out:– it is definitely a harder skill, so keep the bars lower for now. When she was jumping to her left, she started with the higher bar (she started with the lower bar on jumping to her right at the beginning of the video). And latent learning will kick in too, and her brain will wire in the organization to help her out.
– some of the ticking was because she was looking at you (nothing else to look at in a short grid so it was easy for her to watch you and the toy throw :)) so have the toy on the ground as a focal point. Place it about 10 feet past jump 2, so she can power through with a straight, lower head.
– I think the footing played a role here too – mats are fine for most things (like all of the other games you do with her here :)) but the mats were not really giving her good grip to set up the power jumping on the backside on this angle. The focal point of the toy on the ground might help, or you might find it more successful if you can get to dirt or thick turf at some point. You might need to wait til spring for the tighter angles on this, but that is fine because she is doing really well and you can keep it to simpler angles in mats because the simpler angles don’t need as much “grab” of the footing as the harder angles do on the backsides. Once she learns the high speed organization, she should be able to bring it back to mats but for now, she has to slow herself down to get it on mats and that doesn’t seem like something she will do hahaha!!!
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! Hope you had a great holiday weekend and also hope for NO travel or weather issues!!
For the backside circle wraps – he did well sorting out the organization of it all through the various stages. Yay! I think the hardest part was ignoring the food bowl 🙂 So the next step is to treat this as a full circle wrap, with you moving past the wing to takeoff side as he sits on the plank. This might be hard for the first rep or two, so move at a slow shuffle 🙂 til he gets the concept, them you can move a little faster.
The food bowl placement will be a little trickier – we want to give him another stride or two on the landing side so he wraps the wing (lots of bending on this turn effort!) You can place the bowl at the end of the plank (the part further from the bar): that way he goes between the jump and the bowl to get on the plank (the bowl will be behind him when he is sitting) and after the release, he drives all the way around the wing to get to the bowl. That can give him more room to bend as he takes the jump, and less distraction as he is heading towards the wing (theoretically haha)
Great job here!!
TracyGood morning! Hope you had a lovely weekend! It was very cold here but no snow/ice and we made it through with only a brief power outage. Whew! Hope it is warming up a little for you too!
She did really well with the barrel-to-toy game! She wrapped beautifully and drove ahead beautifully. Super!!! And i think you were also using your wrap verbals – nice!! The straightest path for her was when you did the spin (FC-BC), that created the tightest line. When you did a post turn, she was wider but that was the correct ‘reading’ of the cue and line. So instead of post turns, do FCs and spins to rehearse the super tight lines around the barrel and to the toy. And keep adding distance between the barrel and the toy, so she really gets the feel of driving way ahead of you 🙂
She was not entirely sure when to drop the toy, because you were quick to trade. So it seems like she is not running off with the toy, so you can take another moment to tug with the toy that she has in her mouth then trade for the next one (or fade out the trade, if she is happy to give the original toy back :))
Turn and burn is indeed a hard game, but she is doing really well! There is a LOT of countermotion in this game but she is sorting it out nicely. She does best when you are totally stationary until she gets to the line on the ground – if you move too early, even a little, she looks at you. On most of these you were totally stationary until she got to the line, which really helped her! She seems to be a righty and did better on the turns in the 2nd half of the video. She didn’t seem to lose focus when she investigated the DW – I think she was just investigating the dog walk because it was right there 🙂
And I agree – the more action there is with the toy, the more she plays with it. She was GREAT here with the toy! And it is a good choice for this game(using a toy) because it is high enough in value that it is a reward, but not sooooo high that it is a distraction 🙂
Keep working this turn and burn so you can keep moving sooner and sooner. You can also move to the rocking horse games, which will add the 2nd barrel and more action (she likes action!) and you don’t have to move as early as you did here.
Great job! Let me know how the next steps go!
TracyGood morning! Hope you had a lovely holiday weekend!
He did really well with the beginning retrieve game! Definitely strong tugging and you were great about the pressure-then-release of having him tug on you then letting him “win” the toy and letting him have it. You were also great about resisting temptation to touch him LOL!! I really liked how he drove back to you when you asked him to jump up for it. Super! The next step can be in a small area (bathroom!) where you can toss the toy and encourage him to bring it back (because in a small bathroom, there is no place else to go :))
And since he is a foodie, you can also go to the next step of shaping him to retrieve something using a clicker and food rewards. The item doesn’t have to be a toy, it can be anything that is easy to pick up. That can help give him the idea of bringing things to you.
Later on down the road, these 2 steps will merge and huge will bring you the toys 🙂
You can end the session like you did here – he wins the toy, you trade for a treat scatter. Or, you can let him win the toy and cue him to take it on a run! Or trade the toy for a chew bone. All of these approaches allow him to decompress, which is great after tugging because the tugging is very stimulating and intense so a bit of decompression is needed.
He is a great age to start the stay games: old enough to be successful, and not yet a true adolescent haha! And you are correct: this game is HARD – the concept of NOT moving when the momma moves away is a mind-exploder for puppies. He had a good rhythm going then got lost in a smell for a little bit but then came back strong. Nice session! It is actually one of the only games where a clicker can be super helpful, so in the next session you might want to add a clicker: begin by click the sit then say “catch” and toss like you did here, for 3 or 4 reps. Then, delay the click for a heartbeat, then click/stay catch/toss. You can start delaying that click more and more, in a variable way: sometimes 2 heartbeats, sometimes 1 heartbeat, sometimes click immediately, sometimes 4 heartbeats, etc. If he moves before the click, no worries, make the next rep easier. I have found that the small, fast-moving dogs find the click immensely clarifying for this game 🙂
About the release word: I also use “break” to mean “move forward towards me” which in agility also means to take the obstacles on the line (although releasing with an obstacle name is cool too). I think wait and break sound pretty different, especially in context: BREAK! Is high energy, fast, with an emphasis on the BR. Wait is usually longer and drawn out and lower in energy, with emphasis on the “ai” diphthong, so the dogs don’t mistake the 2 words. And catch is totally different in meaning and delivery, so it should make sense to him.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
>> how do you teach your dogs to bark on cue?
I get them super excited, get my other dogs involved because they will bark and add some competitive spirit… and show the dog something they all want like a toy or food. Then I use trigger words like “ready ready” or “cookie” and whichever dog makes the first noise, gets the the thing. It is shaped (amidst the chaos haha) so I reward mouth movement, tiny noises, sneezes, etc. it eventually builds to full on barking and/or clacking, with the trigger words as the cue. Let me know how Casper does!
T
Good morning! I hope Casper had a great birthday and the rest of the family had a lovely Christmas!
MASSIVE PROGRESS on the retrieve! Yes, his toy races look amazing but the retrieving was the real stand out of that session. Even on the very first toy race, note how his first impulse was to turn back to you (he did take that toy on a short run but the other retrieves had shorter and shorter runs, looking like real grown up retrieves! So mainly the toy races can be a fun framework for retrieve games at this point 🙂
The any toy any time game was great too – partially because we could see what appears to be a true motivator/reward, and what definitely is not LOL! That ring toy is a definite win for him. As you saw, the sock monkey toy that was a big NO. He knew it was there, but something about it (texture?) was something he wanted to avoid. He knew it was there when you asked him to get it (looked at it) but definitely did not want to touch it. Good to know! The smaller toy was somewhat fun but in the face of the other 2 toys, not as interesting. Good to know! And retrieve in the game being weaker than in toy races makes sense, because there isn’t as much action as compared to toy races, so he might be created some of his own action or perhaps the retrieve doesn’t predict more action like toy races. Either way, no worries, the retrieve is progressing nicely so it is fine to not worry about it in this context.
The lower hierarchy toy will come up in value with a little more use. And the icky sock monkey toy is good for shaping a retrieve so it is a behavior when that toy is involved, and the toy is not a motivator or reinforcement (just an object to pick up).About the hand grabbing when playing with toys… longer, bigger toys can sometimes help (like tying the rubber ring to a longer toy) but sometimes the pups just need to learn to NOT grab out flesh. I have found a specific marker to give permission to grab a toy in my hands helps a LOT: when I added the “bite” marker (as in, bite the toy in my hand), the dogs are all so much better about not grabbing flesh. I also did some videos a while back about teaching dogs not to bite our hands during tugging:
Part 1
Part 2
Have fun!
TracyHi!
>> While I envy Susan Garrett, Ann Braue and others who can train one dog while another one waits patiently, I do not envy the amount of time and attention to detail that this training requires.
Totally relatable LOL!!!! And I also teach all of my dogs to bark on cue, which contributes to the sound effects when they offer it gladly 🙂
And hey, if memory serves: Happy birthday to Casper, tomorrow! Christmas puppy!!
Looking at the video – his target sending was really good especially in the face of a high level of distraction! He either hit it perfectly, or hit it really well, and had a couple of “almost hit it” mixed in there. The almost-hit moments were close enough to hitting it (in that distraction level) that they were rewardable for now and also in his adolescent brain that was processing a lot: it is entirely possible that he though he hit it LOL!!!
I think the weaker link was the motivator/reinforcement. He drove to the target on both the sending and parallel path, but the click didn’t drive him back to you on the sends, for example – possibly because he knew that the available reinforcement was food and that was lower value in terms a of handling the Enzo-distraction (Enzo was not that loud at all, really!). So in this situation, try a toy, even for the games that initially start with cookies. The toy will change his arousal state and probably help him ignore the Enzo distraction in favor of the training. You won’t get as many reps because toys take longer to use, but the quality of reps will be terrific.
He sometimes ended up on the wrong side of you on the reinforcement after the backwards sending, for example, so a little more connection will help there too.
For the rear crosses: it is probably the hardest skill we are showing the puppies to this point, so try it again after you have another barn session on the parallel path where he drives ahead of you to get it. Then you can add in the RC: cut in behind him ridiculously early to get into his line of vision on the new side, and reward if he turns the correct direction (and even if he doesn’t hit the prop). The trick is to get into the pup’s line of vision on the new side when he is still 2 steps away from his hat – that often produces the rear cross. I say “often” because sometimes the pups don’t even know that such a thing as a rear cross can even exist! So we can try the cookie toss game, or I have one other game up my sleeve for it 🙂
Great job! Let me know what you think, and have a great Christmas!!
Tracy
Omg! What a great photo of the one and only Patt ❤️
>>I am finding that it is a challenge to find training time but the bigger challenge is getting my videos ready>>
I totally relate!!!! Especially at this time of year, with multiple dogs, more than one sport, when life is busy and there are significant weather challenges.
I like to prioritize – top one is carve out time with the puppy, without or without official class work 🙂
And I will watch/edit/ppst any videos that had trouble spots. The others can go into the feel-good pile – and those can get edited/posted for those times we just need to show off our puppies strutting their brilliant selves 🙂
Have a great holiday!!!
TracyHi! Hope you are enjoying a great weekend with the family!
For the zig zags – having the PT further definitely helped. I think the initial question was also motion based – you are relatively stationary between the 2 jumps on the release on the 1st rep, so he said “collection!” then after that, he was like “oh yeah, on this one, we bounce”. So to get that very first rep in a situation where you can’t be running the whole time, try leading out as far past 2 as possible and see if that helps.
The fading looked great! He was nice and powerful, and organized 🙂 You can add more motion to this, and then a higher bar… and then bye bye to the plank 🙂
On the 2nd video:
>>He sits as soon as I say it so when I delayed the cue he started sitting closer to the bar. >
Boy dogs LOL!! I love them: “MOM I SIT RIGHT NOW BECAUSE YOU SAID SIT RIGHT NOW”. Girl dogs sometimes just ignore us and do what they think is correct LOL!
Also, it shows how well he is recognizing the setup and processing the cue. We used to have to be super early because the dogs all needed the processing time. But with the plank there, he no longer needs the processing time and sits instantly.
By contrast, without the plank – processing time DEFINITELY needed LOL!! I saw some “WTH” and “Wait, what??” thought bubbles happening and that resulted in a little bit of a delayed response (fascinating to see the difference in response time with the plank and without the plank). You did a great job of being patient to let him sit! On the reps at :54 you were a shade too quick to turn after the release, but the rest were great. My guess is that when you get back and try it again, he will be quicker to get the sit (latent learning) and then you can fade the sit too.
Great job! Have a wonderful (and not-too-cold) holiday weekend!
TracyGood morning!
Get out:
>>Does the off side arm work to send the dog away even if it is a long ways a way or would you use something else?>>Yes! It is a really visible cue and works well at a distance too. But when the dog has to go a LONG way away, it will be the verbals that do all of the heavy lifting for you 🙂 as well as the trained understanding to stay on the line. The parallel path game is a really important piece.
The get out with you stationary looks fine and dandy so I am glad you added in the motion. And now that you know that you can consistently produce the behavior… adding the verbal was correct! She did super with it and you were also getting a lot better about using your thrown cookie marker. Super!!!! And the balance reps were no problem at all for her. When you have more space, you can add more distance to this.
The rocking horse game looks great too! I think at :06 you wanted her to stop and eat the cookie in your hand, but she continued to the barrel. What happened there was that as she exited the first barrel, she saw motion to the 2nd barrel and did not get a clear indication to come eat the cookie (the cookie-in-hand marker would do it, along with a more more obvious presentation). So…. good for her! We do want her to ignore food & toys in your hands and look at the lines instead 🙂 so you were correct to reward her then get more obvious with the next reps. What is your “reward in hand” marker? Definitely add that in at this stage.
She had a little trouble on the right turns when you sent a shade too early. She did better when you send her to right turns a little later. It sounds strange, but she needed to get almost all the way to you before sending her to do a right turn on the barrel next to the pole – that will get easier as she gets more experienced, and she was already improving in this session! She did NOT need you to be later on the left turn wraps, those were smooth like a fresh jar of Skippy 🙂
And SUPER well done to you, adding in the verbals and the mechanics of the sideways sending – that is some seriously challenging stuff and you made it look easy! Woohoo! My only suggestion is to do it with empty hands: you were switching your cookies back and forth between hands, which delayed the cues and was causing her to look at you (because cookies were moving and nothing else was happening). The rewards on this game don’t need to be ultra precise, so empty hands are fine then you can pull out a toy or treats from a pocket.
She definitely liked the action!!! So you can add a little more distance between your barrels 🙂
Strike a Pose – She had no trouble coming in over the bar from any angle here. She also appear to think the reinforcement was dullsville when you were using the cookies – the toy was more fun for sure, especially when it was on the ground! Wheeee!
Also remember that we are fading the target touching so if she comes in and goes out without hitting the target? Reward! That is closer to the eventual end behavior. When she did that at 1:26, she was not cheating 🙂 2 things happened:
You didn’t look at the target til she was already over the jump, and your position was too far from the jump so she didn’t realy have to turn. More about position:I think you are a shade to far from the jump on these which is why we didn’t really see the turns happening: she was able to fit her whole body straight on the landing side. At :15 you fully extended your arm and couldn’t really put your hand on it. Your position should be close enough to put your palm on it with a slightly bent elbow – that will cue more turning for her and you will see her begin her turn before arriving at the jump so she “lands” pretty much turned.
This is also dramatically harder for our herding dogs LOL! A terrier is going to drive right in and hit you but a BC is going to want to move away from the pressure. So since we know that she doesn’t already love driving in with you are stationary with cookies, start this with the toy in your reward hand rather than treats. She will like that 🙂 And then you can do the toy on the ground again – when you are closer to the jump and the toy is on the ground, any behavior where she comes over the bar and turns to put herself between you and the jump is rewardable, even if the target hit is not perfect, because we are fading it out anyway. Two behaviors she offer are going around the jump to the toy, or going over the jump and behind you to the toy 🙂 You can use a reset reward on this – either a cookie as you bring her back to the start position, or a gentle short tug is she has the toy then a cookie to the start position. A BIG tug party should erupt when she gets it right.
Great job on these!! Let me know what you think. I hope you, Brad, and the dogs all have a fabulous holiday weekend!
TracyHi! Hope it isn’t too cold! Is brutal here but at least the wind has died down.
>> Tried the wing wrap with send to toy. I should have let her have a romp around before we started anything. She grabbed the toy when I set it down for the exercise and spent a lot of time having a party running around the field. Usually she comes back for a game of tug but didn’t do that today. >>
She might need more deliberate decompression built into her days, where all you do is send her to run around with a toy, and zero training. It is a good thing for an adolescent brain.
And sometimes, the youngster “just can’t” that day, and the scientist/vet types tell us this normal and the best plan of action is to stop trying, and try something else or come back later or the next day. It is a relief to know it, and less frustrating for all involved.
>>I was trying to use the more visible toy for her to “go” to and that one was hard to resist vs. the smaller toy in my hand. We worked a few turns around the barrel with “go” to the toy and I decided best to stop there because I was starting to feel a bit frustrated with the run offs.
Yes, it was too hard for that moment for whatever reason, so stopping was best. With my teenagers, if they are unable to engage from the start, then I just abandon plans and do something else.
>She also flipped herself over grabbing the toy once so I think she was overstimulated and probably should have done something less exciting first like the parallel path or rear cross. I suspect I still haven’t found the right balance of which 2 toys to use, or toys & food (was using 2 toys today) and need lots more work on the retrieve. >>
Or… it is not a training issue, not operant at all, and just how her brain is developing at the moment. The more I learn about operant conditioning, the more I understand that it is a tiny piece of the bigger puzzle.
It is also possible that you are asking for too much in one day for a teenager 🙂 if she did all of these, plus obedience earlier, and does stuff like that daily…that’s a LOT. I find that baby puppies and adults are fine with that, but adolescents do best with one or maybe two things a day because less is definitely more on their brains 🙂 I can actually do more with baby Ramen (just turned 5 months) than I can do with adolescent Elektra, but I expect that to change as Elektra gets into adulthood and Ramen hits adolescence in a couple of months. Elektra gets more decompression built in and fewer working sessions.
Add in the change in temperature – it is COLD there, which her brain has to process and that’s is a new sensation for her!
>> You’ll also see in the video where she stopped and got distracted by a car turning into a driveway down the street in our neighborhood. I am wondering if teenage sensitivity is in full force kicking in now? She never used to notice things like this and even ran to the fence and barked at someone walking past our house twice this week. Always before she just looked and stuck with me. She seems to be noticing things including noises more than she did before. I could use some advice on what to do in these situations. I know from experience terriers can get hypersensitive about things and hope I can avoid that if at all possible. >>
It is highly likely to be adolescence: the neuroscientists tell us that in adolescence, the dogs become more sensitive to noises and stuff like that, less receptive to reinforcement, more receptive to punishment (but not in a good way) and it takes them twice as long to ‘return to baseline’ in terms of stress hormones than baby pups or adult dogs. So the things you see are all in line with this. That is why we ramp up our resilience games and dial back the more intense training for a while. So you can take her out to the yard/fence line and do your cookie pattern resilience game, and decompression games, and also do those resilience walks so she can watch the world from her newly adolescent brain perspective 🙂
These are to help give her the tools to bounce back from the startle of a car going past, or someone walking by. I also give the adolescents a little less freedom in situations where they might have trouble – like being alone in the yard, or around other dogs that don’t provide social support in a positive way.
Looking at the videos:
Turn and burn is looking good! She is committing beautifully and driving ahead beautifully. And I see what you mean about twisting to get the toy – eek! So you have a bigger toy, like a jolly ball? Something bigger/taller will help her decel more. If not, try it with a food bowl or Manners Minder, and no more toy so she doesn’t pretzel herself while driving ahead.
The rocking horses are looking good, her commitment is lovely!! She did a great job ignoring the toys and treats in your hands. Yay! Once you get into 2 in a row, keep it to 2 or maybe 3 in a row then a turn and burn to exit the setup and reward, otherwise it gets too repetitive (you had 6 in a row which is a bit too many.) You can add challenge in the advanced level with different motion 😀
Strike a pose:
The portion with food went well – she was a bit far from the jump but your position and the stimulation level got her to drive in and set up the turn really nicely.
Your position was slightly better on the left turns at the beginning and a little too centered on the bar for the right turns, so she didn’t turn quite as well. Being one step further towards the wing so your Serp hand is not centered on the bar will help.After the 2 minute mark, you went to toys and didn’t reward the first rep (she broke the stay, from what I could tell, but I think you withheld the reward because the hand touch was not strong). Bear in mind that we are training in approximations, so when one variable increases we can dial back criteria expectations on other variables. Plus, this game does fade the hand targeting as the pups predict reward placement: we want them to start to come in over the bar, slide past the hand (not touching it) and head to the next line (where reward is… so she was 100% correct to do that LOL! Having her go back to hit the target is not needed at this point – if she begins to side swipe it as she creates the serp chain, perfect! Reward that 🙂
>> but when I tried using a toy she kept doing drive by’s past my target hand. Can you give me some advice on how to work through that?>>
So basically, go with it as long as she comes over the bar, because it is the correct next step. If she does NOT come over the bar, then you can moves your hand to get her to look at it more.
The wobble board video was really interesting! She was perfectly happy to get on the board and move around on it – you can use a low hand for her to follow when you have her turn or change positions, to keep her head lower for better balance and weight shift (chin at spine level is probably the best head position for her). Her tugging is what was interesting! Instead of tugging, it was more like thrashing… which is more of a decompression behavior and less of a play behavior. I generally see her playing and not doing the prolonged thrashing. This can lend support for building in more decompression moments before, during, and after the training so she can sort things out better during training.
Great job on these! Let me know what you think! And have a great holiday weekend!
TracyGood morning!
I’m glad she is zipping around her barrels! She seems to train like a sighthound: perhaps the first session isn’t perfect as we humans sort out mechanics, then BOOM! She has it and she is fast. So fun!For the mechanics on these crazy games, try doing it at a walk or ask one of the older dogs to play if they know how to go around barrels. I think the baby dog handling games are harder than real courses sometimes, because everything happens so darned fast and we have to be pretty perfect for the baby dogs 🙂
Have fun! And have a great holiday weekend!
TracyGood morning!
Yes, I think you’re right that the steroid is making her extra hungry. The toy drive will be back when the steroid is gone 🙂
The parallel path looks strong. She is nailing the concept of driving to the prop on that parallel line, from ahead of you or parallel to you or a little behind you. For the next steps:
We will get her looking at you a little less. She’s only looking at you after she arrives at the prop, so a timing change will help: Switch from the clicker to a “get it” marker. Instead of marking the hit of the prop, we are going to fade that and mark her intent to go to it. So when she is on the way to it, a stride or two away, say “get it” and toss the treat ahead so it lands before she looks back.
She might not hit the prop but that is fine because it sets us up for the next thing:Try out the concept transfer for this game, where we take the concept to a jump. Yay!
Rear crosses to the left were working pretty well, and also she was HILARIOUS at 1:38 when she got to the prop and just stared at it: “I’m not sure which way to turn yet, so I’m just gonna stare at it” LOL! Brilliant!
The reason the left turn RC worked was your timing: you were in her left side and appearing in her line of sight. The right turns are harder because she isn’t a righty, so getting into her line of sight as early as possible will help. I think that alternate RC game will help because it makes it harder to run left and easier to turn right (theoretically, because RCs are HARD!)Turn and Burn looks amazing! The left turns were just about perfect. The right turns required more patience – it looks like her current commitment on the right turns is that you can start to move when she is halfway around. Any earlier pills her off the barrel for now, but that is fine because you can keep expanding her commitment inch by inch.
I think she is ready for the rocking horse game we posted on Wednesday! That will help balance the left and right turns, as long as you are patient on the right turns as you start.
Great job here! Hope you have a wonderful holiday weekend!
Tracy
