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Hi! I hope your mom is feeling better, that must have been really hard. Fingers crossed she is doing well!!
I love that MinnySota has her own theme music on the video! She is adorable – thanks for the intro!
Great job with the prop games! She definitely has value for it and the timing of your ‘yes’ and cookie throw is great! Also, you did a lovely job with the session structure: a bit of a warm up to hit the prop, then moving into the parallel path game. Super!
Because this went so well, you can definitely add more distance away from her. If you were maybe 2 feet away from her in this session, trying staying on a parallel line that is 3 or 4 feet away in the next session. Then you can build up to 5 or 6 feet away! She wants to look at you, so moving your line to be more laterally away will be a good challenge 🙂
Does she like to play with tug toys? If so, you can break off the cookie moment and play some tug, to help keep her pumped up – that way we are basically starting to teach her how to maintain her focus in higher arousal.
Great job here! I am looking forward to your Turn And Burn video. Have a good Thanksgiving!
Tracy
Hi!
>>I am literally a human Pez- super cute dog name…>>
HA! I actually almost named my youngest pup Pez… but I went with Jitterbug because I love that Wham earworm song LOL!
>>Click treat Danika. Short session, hands down, super back up! >>
This was great! She has very quick feet and was definnitely backing up. Yay! I was going to suggest you add the mat as a backing up target but you went to it in the 2nd half of this sesion: SUPER! I think the desiniation of the mat gave her a lightbulb moment and she did really well. You can now move the mat a little further away so she backs up further to it 🙂 Form is more important than distance, so there is no rush to get a lot of distance; we will keep emphasizing form.
>>Added in tugging off leg since I can’t work on just one thing>>
Tugging is a good balance for every cookie session! So it is great that you added it 🙂
>.Excited to work outside today and tomorrow on some of the new exercises.
Let me know how they go! Have a good Thanksgiving!
Tracy
Hi!
Were your ears burning today? Julie Tune and I were chatting about you and Nadja (wonderful things of course) because I met her to pick up one of the Fonts pups (Calibri) to go live with my parents and niece & nephew! Calibri and Nadja are the same age but not littermates, correct? But both are Camper pups, yes?Nadja looked great with the cone wrapping! It looks like there was just enough distance to give her some challenge but she had an easy time of it 🙂
Because this went so well, I recommend you go to the Turn And Burn game posted last night. If she has any trouble offering to go around the cone, you can put her bowl on the exit line to help her out. But I think she will figure it out fast and she will really like the action!
Backing up is looking really strong, she has made significant progress!! SUPER!! You can do a bit of a combo version of it now… using the long jump boards, you can also put the mat you were using previously for her to back up onto. Start the mat right at the entry to the channel of the boards… then you can move it further and further back, so she is backing up to target the mat. Let me know if that makes sense. And, you will soon be able to add the next step which is backing up onto something that is moving (posted yesterday too).
Great job here!!
Tracy
Hi!
He definitely seems to have the flow of the back and forth here with the bowls! The cone went well too but he was better going to your left than to your right (where he was able to squeeze himself in between you and the cone). I think he probably needs one more session where the cone is super close to you and then you can start to inch it away from you.At the beginning of the session, he was disracted by the stuff in the environment – uf he is cleared to tug, you can start with a little bit of tug to help get him engaged. If he is not yet cleared to tug, then you can use cookies to engage him a bit – that will help the distractions fade into the background.
Great job here! Let me know how the next session goes!
Tracy
Hi!
>> Changtse always likes to rehearse maneuvers
She likes things to be predictable, so rehearsing will definitely help! I love her big leash!
Taking the leash off and lining up was REALLY hard with the reward station behind her! She did better on the 2nd rep but you can see how challenging it was even on the 2nd rep when she was looking behind her at it. I think the bag of rewards was too accessible, so you can put it inside something so she can’t grab it. If she runs off to the reward station, try not to get mad at her or even react – just go over and put the leash back on, and try again.
Wow, the driving ahead sequences looked great! She LOVES the go cue, probably because it indicates the ball will be thrown. YAY! Everything else looked really good too! The next step for these sequences would be to try it with the reward station at the end of the line, to challenge her to see if she can run the sequence with nothing in your hands and no treat pockets on.
Great job!! Hope you have a good Thanksgiving!
TracyHi! How is your surgery recovery coming along?
You have lifetime access to the forum and class 🙂 No rush to download things because you won’t lose them.
Tracy
Hi!
She did a great job with her accordion grid here! Se did not bounce the first rep at 6 feet, but she bounced it when you did it again later in the session, I guess she likes the bounce!! LOL!
>>I’m curious on what to look for moving forward. Do I make adjustments based on how she is jumping or does the exercise itself teach her to self-adjust?>
These exercises help her figure out how to adjust. You can keep th first distance at 30″ and keep changing the next distances, building up to competition distances. She is doing really well! If she starts to stutter step, or fling herself, or face plant… then we will have to change things. But she looks good!
>>She might be an impatient jumper if that is a thing. Hahaha>>
Ha! I think she is actually pretty patient – if she was impatient, that 30″ distance would be impossible. I like what she is doing! She is built like a tiny powerhouse with the bulk of her weight on her front, so her jumping style mght look different than say, a Sheltie, but she is sorting herself out beautifully.
>>We will keep working the other games to get to the advanced levels. Do you think I am too careful & go too slow on the games? I want to get the baby level solid before I move on, but then we don’t get to the advanced levels.>>
I don’t think you are going too slowly! As long as you remember the balane between not needing to be perfect, and not having too many errors – you will find that she learns quickly. You can definitely go back and look at the advanced level – I bet you find it easy to do them because her baby level looks good!
>>I am thinking about doing the independent study teeter class for the winter. I should get enough good weather to do it and if I remember correctly, I should train the teeter as the first contact since it is the moving contact.>>
Fun!!! You can train all 3 contacts at the same time – they are all radically different, depending on what you want her to do on them 🙂
I am so glad you had fun here! Stay tuned for a “winter camp” class 🙂
Happy Thanksgiving!!
TracyHi!
I am fully recovered from the Open, sort of LOL!
You and Miss Mochi are totally ready for the next class! The games don’t need to be perfect, they just need to be pretty good -and Mochi is closer to perfect! I am thinking the winter hybrid class will have 2 tracks in it: puppies/teenagers, and adult dogs. That will be doubly fun for the puppy people, because you can play the young dog games and then you’ll also have the adult dog version of it for when she is older.
>>If you do decide to have another class, a hybrid of sorts, or something else, how will I communicate with you to ask if we’re ready for that class? The forum will be closed.<< You'll get an email. I was hoping to have the outline finished already but alas, crazy things keep cropping up. I hope to have it done and posted by next week. Thanks! Tracy
Good morning!
Great job in class last night – I am glad you got home in time!
>I have been working on/planning on the following marker cues but I have some questions:
Questions: – I’m thinking of combining toss and get it into a cue to go get the toy/treat. My thoughts are I often default to saying “get it”, but is it important to distinguish between toy & treat w/the marker? >>I have personally not found that the dogs have questions about using ‘get it’ for both the toy and treat. The context makes it very clear to them plus I would never toss both and ask them to figure out which one based on the marker. I mean, I’m sure it can be done, I just don’t see the reason to do it as it sets up too much failure potential).
And it is far too easy for all of us to accidentally default to ‘get it’ on both things like you mentioned, so we might as well trust the pups’ ability to read context and not worry about separate cues.
If we see questions or frustration from Lift, we can change it and add another marker but I doubt she will get mad at you about it 🙂
>>>>And should get it be more about driving ahead as opposed to the cue I will use with the pattern game or the backing up when I toss the treat between their legs? (Right now that would be a toss cue for me which is maybe a bit more thoughtful than a run and get it for the toy).>>
If ‘toss’ is a lower energy delivery, to the side… and you can remember it… then yes, you can totally use it to differentiate between that and get it. I use get it for both the driving ahead and the pattern game food tosses, because the dogs read the context and my movement so easily. I personally don’t ‘test’ the markers that much, but if I say “get it” the dogs will stop looking at me and start looking for where I have thrown the ‘thing’.
>>– I picked “Yes” for the come get the treat from my hand since that is what I tend to default to say when I want the dog to come to me to get a reward out of my hand. However there is the tendency to use Yes when I”m excited that they did something (like hit a weave pole entry) and that is a situation where I don’t want them to break off what they are doing and come to me for a treat. >>Entirely relatable and when Hot Sauce and CB were baby dogs, I would pull them off things ALL THE TIME by saying “yes”. Oops! So I cleaned up my markers, learned to stop yelling “YES!” 🙂 and now the marker on course is the next cue.
>>So I”m thinking about switching to snacks. But if I do that, does “yes” have a specific meaning or is it just a generic encouragement workd?>
Yes just gets used so much that I think it becomes background noise with different meanings in different contexts. I am standing in my kitchen with all of my dogs right now, and I yelled “yes!” Like I would for a great weave entry… they didn’t even look at me. Then I said it “yessssss” like I do when shaping something and going to give a cookie… they all got up and walked over, looking at me LOL! Dogs are brilliant.
>>– And thinking ahead to directionals, I clearly need something other than “Left” given her name. Is Links (German for Left) too close to Lift? Do I need something else for left? Haw or Port maybe?>>I think any Li or Le might be too similar. Haw or Port are good. What about ‘soft’?
Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! This is looking really good!!
The next step will be about preparing for the Turn And Burn game 🙂 So the first question is: what would you like to use for her to wrap around in that game – a big barrel? Giant cone? Whatever you choose, you can do a session with the 2 bowls and the object. No need to move the bowls further back, instead you can just do a value building session or two on the barrel or cone or whatever you choose.
Then if that goes well (and I am sure it will!) you can move to the turn and burn game we added last night 🙂 If she needs help getting started, you can put a bowl down on the exit line. I bet she will not need help though and will jump into offering it 🙂
Great job here!
TracyGood morning!
Very nice job on the sequences here! She looked great, she was focusing on her lines beautifully, and was FAST! Love it!!
My only suggestion is to try a ‘jump’ verbal instead of ‘go’ for the jumps, because go means straight and we want to keep that for those big straight lines.
Great connection here and she seemed to have no question about where to go. Super!!
>>I stopped before she lost interest >>
Perfect!!!
>> i think I’m going to have to practise some longer sequences at some stage.
Yes, you can throw in some longer sequences (I have more coming that are longer and will be posted next Monday). And also, you can work on the remote reinforcement with very short sequences, so she learns to run without the reward in your hand or pocket. Start it on the flat and then start to add some jumps and short fun sequences.
Great job here!
TracyHi!
These are looking good overall! I think they might be posted in reverse order 🙂
>>Interestingly, when he got rewarded by a thrown toy, toy at end lost its value.>>
A “live” (moving) toy is more exciting than a “dead” (placed) toy 🙂 so you can mix in more driving to the placed toy.
I think the first video here was the last sequence (with the rear crosses): The toy placed on the line indicated the straight line, so when you were late on the RC (:46 and 1:52) he drove straight. AS he was lifting off for the RC jump, you were still on the straight line position. Your timing at 2:41 was better – he could see the RC diagonal sooner so he got the RC there.
2nd video – He had a similar question about the timing of the RC at :41 (you were not yet showing the info as he was taking off). The timing at 1:27 and 2:13 was better – he could see you getting on the RC line before he had to make a takeoff decision.
For the backside cues on this sequences and the other videos, remember to use more connection out of the tunnel to consistently get the backside push, and keep moving forward to the jump til he locks onto the backside. And then maintain connection to show the line to the tunnel entry you want. At 1:57 he was correct when you said ‘here’ and pulled him to your line so he took the other end of the tunnel. He is reading everything really well, so if something goes wrong try to watch the video before the next rep so you can see what he was seeing.
3rd video – A little too much Go Go on the jump line before switching to the RC cue at :47 was what go the off course 🙂 Go is a powerful word so you want to be careful when you use it 🙂 A ‘jump’ cue will get less forward momentum and make it easier to add the switch cues.
4th video (maybe one of the first reps?) – this had the GO line with the placed toy – very nice! The big loud verbals really helped support the line even when you aren’t running.
5th and 6th video (same video) – the straight line looked good here too, lots of driving way ahead even with you behind and not running hard. SUPER!!Nice work here! Have a happy Thanksgiving!
TracyHi!
The sequences look good!
The go lines are looking really good here!Small details:
On the FC on the backsides at :10 and 1:37, you can decelerate and be more on his line to tighten the turns a little. You will literally be standing on his ideal landing spot as he comes around the backside wing – then move forward towards the tunnel so you are not in his way when he needs the landing spot.Seq 2 – Good job calling sooner before he entered the tunnel on the 2nd rep of it! This is a hard line to set on the tunnel exit (deliberately designed that way to put the handlers a little behind :)) To set the tighter line to the next jump, stick closer to the tunnel exit so you can set the line then drive immediately onto the RC diagonal – you don’t need to turn and face the line at all, you can be running directly to the center of the bar on the RC jump. That will smooth it out!
3rd sequence: When going back to the straight line, you can totally use your GO verbal for at least the first jump after the tunnel. Then you can decelerate into the wrap, like you did on the last rep at 2:05 – that was lovely! YAY!!
You were a little too early at 1:52 by stopping your motion and rotating as he landed from the jump before the wrap jump. The last rep was a really clear transition of going from fast to decelerating (while moving forward) then rotating. NICE!!!Great job here! Have a happy Thanksgiving!!!
Tracy
Hi!
>>To me, he seems like an all-business kind of guy.
He might be all business! I think most dogs are all business in the time between the ring entry and the release from the start line, as long as we optimize arousal before they enter the ring and they know how to self-regulate. It takes some practice/experimenting and he is doing well!
I don’t think he will need the Pink Panther lead out at a trial, but it is GREAT for practice so he rehearses his stays and other behaviors in the arousal state he will be in at trials.
He did really well here and you’ll want to add in rehearsals that are more trial like: working on leash and doing this around other dogs (especially after watching another dog run!).
>>Sitting by the jumps waiting or lining himself up. >>
Yes – but that is also not something that will happen in the trial ring, so be sure to mix in reps to show him what the trial ring entry would look like: leash on, go to the first jump, leash off, line up. If he is in the habit of waiting at the jump for you, or lining up without a leash, it could be a brain exploder if we wait too long to add in the actual progression he will see at a trial. So adding it in now and practicing it will take it very easy 🙂
Tracy
