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Hi! They are challenging but do-able. The trick is to keep your arms in really tight to your ribs, so you don’t have to use up a millisecond to move your arms around – you can just turn your head to make connection.
And timing is super early with fast dogs like Mitre:
do the first blind as early as you can get commitment to the wing, such as starting it when she is halfway between the tunnel and the wing. Then as she is finishing the wrap and her nose it exiting the wing and heading to your new side, you do the second blind and make connection. It will feel early but should work like a charm!
Have fun!
TracyYay! This is great news! She figured out the joys of running up the board 🙂
Even if this happened before the wobble board and tip assist got much use, they will still come in REALLY handy in training!
T
Hi! Thanks for coming to the webinar!!!!
>>I was wondering if you could answer my question for retraining? For River, I’m going to try the two bowls technique to encourage her to focus on the weaves and be happier about it. Her course is going really well and she’s doing fabulously, but still stops dead and barks in a trial, or she stops and then walks past the first few poles. I’m doing a lot of FEO from now on, but it’s so strange that she’s so confident now, but she still can’t do them in the ring. The question is this: should I change the cue as we hopefully change the CER and her confidence with the two bowls game?>>
The thing with issues that were probably brought on by pain, is that the brain literally re-wires so even when there is no pain, the brain will act like there is still pain (there is a webinar on Behavior Vets by Dr. Kathy Murphy about it – called something line “Pain Rewires The Brain” and it was very enlightening).
So it is more than CER, it is also new neural pathways. I wish we could change the weave behavior into a different behavior on the poles, but alas… LOL!! And that is why she cannot yet weave in the ring again.
So I would approach it a couple of ways, similarly to how I approached HSM’s start line concerns (rooted in pain too, pushing off a knee that was causing pain and we didn’t know it).
In training, yes: do the pattern with the Super Bowls like I did on the start line and also with CB on the 6 poles, and with EASY poles (like open channels, just 6 of them). Do lots and lots of little short fun sessions with the reinforcement on you like I did with Elektra and CB (not remote reinforcement). Do this in different places too.
You can also introduce the concept of using toy play at the bowls for when you cannot use food (but food is faster and more efficient for sure).
Then you can take it into the ring: UKI will allow you to out your 2 bowls out there (probably best to not use actual bowls so no one gets twitchy, maybe just bowl-like targets that she has already see in training).
When she is doing well with the home games, you can go to the pattern that uses the remote reinforcement with the food/toys waiting near the bowls on each side.
When she is doing well with that at home AND with the pattern with toys in the ring (in training, with distractions, new places, new people, etc not just at home – be sure to do this to prepare for trials). Then you can take the remote reinforcement pattern into the trial ring – either toy play, toy stays in the bowl, run in, weave, run out, toy play at 2nd bowl. This is trickier but UKI certainly allows it within the rules.
And since the distractions are hard at trials, don’t make trials all about weaves, that is too much pressure. Continue helping her relax and have a grand time in trials, doing as many runs *without* weaves as possible to create a great internal feeling about trial environments 🙂
>>For Muso on the teeter, due to her size (approx 19 lbs), should we do 2o2o? I feel like that might be clearer for her, like Hot Sauce, and also easier props-wise, since sticking things to the teeter isn’t the most transferable prop. She seemed to want to offer 2o2o at the start. >>
There is a trend to do a 4on nowadays with all of these medium and large dogs, people say it is faster but they cannot quantify it as being faster (nor is it faster when we time it). It is faster when to early release 🙂 but then what happens is that the criteria gets grey and the entire performance slows down (because the dog begins to stop sooner). And teeter calls in North America do not allow as much of a fly off as European judges allow LOL!!
So when we compare the speed and longevity of criteria on 4on versus 2o2o? The 2o2o is faster (because the dog is always driving to the end of the board to put front feet on the ground) and easier to maintain (because it is really obvious to handler and dog if the 2o2o is correct, and 4on is not nearly as obvious!.) And when you are trying to win an event (not Novice, obviously hahaha) you can release early (and then there is always criteria to go back to if needed).
A criticism people use about 2o2o is that the dog will get bounced off because they don’t have all their weight on the board – trained correctly, the dogs are weight shifting and have learned to control the bounce of the board, so I have never ever had that issue.
Muso is exactly closer to what Export’s size and weight were, and he had a gorgeous 2o2o teeter for a 10 year career, including plenty of high level success 🙂 HSM is taller/longer/heavier/less confident than Muso, so a better comparison is to Export.
Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
Congrats on the beautiful litter! They are adorable! And I am sure they are keeping you busy!
The wrap games here are looking really good!
Cookie coughing on rep 1? Rep 2 was really tight and good early rotation
Spin to get to tunnel looked great (in the middle and on the last rep too – super!!!)
Good timing of starting the blind at :36
You switched the toy from hand to hand on the first rep, but you had it in the correct hand on the other reps and that made for better timing of the reconnection (the toy switch does take an extra heartbeat and delays connection). The earlier you got the connection, the tighter those blinds were 🙂 You can also send to the tunnel from maybe 2 steps further away on these, so you are closer to the wing on the blind and can decel into it – which then positions you to be moving directly towards the next wing.One other idea, since we are looking at ways to get her to open up and extend ore on course: When you reward, she likes chasing the toy a whole lot! So we can transfer that value to chasing you, which then transfers nicely to course work: Instead of stopping and throwing the reward past you, try to have her chase you as you are waving the toy then when she catches up, she can grab it and you let go as she grabs it, and she runs through the toy to keep running (so she is not taking it from your hand or wrenching your shoulder or her neck). That will get even more speed because she will begin to associate your running with the arousal of the toy chase! Fun!!
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
Great job with the countermotion here! All of it looked terrific and she really had no questions on any of the challenges. She had a little head check/hesitation at :20 (maybe she was not quite ready for the start of the rep?) but all of the other reps of all of the challenges here were super:
1 wrap? Great! 2 in a row? Great! 4 in a row? GREAT!!!! Race tracks? Fabulous! Doing the wrap/race track combos? Also fabulous!!!!Well done to you for getting all of your verbals in and strong timing and great connection (especially on the exits of the wraps – it was SUPER clear and she had zero questions).
So since this is going so well, we can ramp up the challenge of the countermotion by having you rotate sooner to send sooner. What I mean by this is that as she exits a wrap and you are moving towards the next wing, you can decel as she is exiting the wrap and rotate from wherever you are: so as she is arriving at your position, you are already rotated (maybe even moving towards her) and sending her back to the wing behind you (arm, connection shift to the wing, verbal, etc like you did here).
This will be a step or two sooner than you did here for the most part, but if you look at the very last rep (2:36-2:37) you will see that you rotated sooner: as she was arriving at your right leg, you were already rotating and sending with your left arm/leg. So that is the starting point then we can get the rotation sooner and sooner!
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
She is totally getting the idea here with these circle wraps – they are perhaps the hardest commitment in agility! You were excellent about NOT backing up – yay!!!
At the beginning it took a minute to get the rhythm of connection and shifting the connection to the “landing spot” of the wing (the other side of the wing). Looking at her a little too much as you moved (like at :10, 1:00, 1:12) was why she looked back at you rather than committed.
When you started dropping the toy, that really help – both to reward the commitment and also to show her your connection shifting to landing. One thing that looked really good there was that you sent to the wing with the dog side arm/hand then pointed to the landing spot with your other hand. That helped support her commitment more than when you had your dog side hand coming across your body – it was harder to connect to the landing spot with the dog side hand doing all the work 🙂
So even when you don’t drop the toy – you can use the same mechanics when you cue it as if you are dropping a toy : )
She only had one other question, which was at 3:07 when she ended up on the left side of you and you wanted her on the right side – that was a moment of sending forward to the wing too early (before she had a chance to get to your correct side going out of the wrap).
Compare to the connection at 3:42 in the same spot, where you stayed connected til she could get on your right side, then sent her forward to the wing: perfect!!>>However, we still can’t add a lot of speed to the exercise.>>
No worries! It takes some practice before you can be jogging or running, but she is coming along really well here!!!
Safe travels back and forth from PA!! See you back here soon!
TracyGood morning! Really nice work here!!!
>>Still might be more arms than necessary, but better.
I thought your arms and connections were both really good here! One way to keep your arms low is to run with an open bottle of water in your hands – you will feel it spill it you start flinging arms around 🙂
That first rep when she picked up the fallen toy on the fly and continued was SO FUNNY! Thanks for leaving it in! Good girl!
The runs here all looked good – connected, you had your verbals going, and her commitments and turns looked strong!
She only had one question which was at :56 – you ended up rotating too early and your dog-side leg never stepped to the wing, so she was a bit unsure. You fixed it on the next rep at 1:20 by being a step later – nice!
On both of these, remember that you can decelerate into the turn without having to get to the wing as fast or rotate as quickly. You decelerated more when she was on your left side on. The earlier reps, and it was very smooth!!!Great job here! Stay cool!
TracyHi! Great job on this session!
>>Our normal MO when training is Sly gets to run around and check out things in the training area while I setup stuff. For this session I asked him to come in cold and immediately go to work with Changtse down at the other end of the training area and without him getting to run around and check everything out.>>
He was a total professional – no questions, full focus. Good boy! I am not surprised at all, he is really such a good boy!
>>Focused on timing of those darn verbal cues in this session. Progress!!!>>
I would say mission accomplished on getting the timing! You were starting them on time and repeating them for good measure (with being quiet to take a breath in the sections where he didn’t need a verbal). Plus your physical cues supported all the verbals – REALLY nice!!
Both layering lines looked super strong, which allowed you to easily get the handling in where you needed to be.
And if one verbal was maybe not perfect, you adjusted perfectly on the next rep. I think he heard all of the important verbals at takeoff of the previous jump. The only verbal that needed to be a bit sooner was the first “wrap wrap” rep. On that rep you started it after he landed from the previous jump, so he was a little wide o the wrap. But then on the last rep, you started it perfectly as he was lifting off for the previous jump, so he had a pretty perfect turn on the wrap AND went back out to the layering really well!
Great job here! He is definitely ready for the bigger layering challenges!
Tracy
Hi!
Looking at the turn and burn: She did well with both the toy and food here! The toy is a better choice here, because of the excitement it brings to the game (and we want the excitement!)Yes, you can be leaving earlier but the way to do that is to try not to step out towards the exit of the wing with the non-dog-side leg. You might no even realize you are doing it: you are sending with your right arm/leg, for example, then your left arm/leg step to the exit of the wing, and then you turn and go. So we want to take out that extra step and just have the send followed by the turn and go 🙂 After the send, I tell myself to stand still and that really helps prevent me from stepping towards the exit of the wing. And to know when to leave sooner, you can put a line on the ground to cue you to leave: as soon as she arrives at the line halfway around, for example, you do the FC and leave.
Restrained recalls – these went really well! You probably need to be further ahead before you call her, so you have more time before she gets to you (especially with the blinds). When doing the blinds – change sides but don’t change the toy around 🙂 You want the blinds to be more about your connection changing sides and not the toy moving from side to side. I like to keep the toy in my dog-side arm the whole time, do the blind, and show the toy to the dog across my body because this really opens up big connection on the new side.
The discrimination game is really hard! The crate is small and obvious and she can see you – the tunnel is long and harder when you are not moving. So you can scrunch up the tunnel so ti is also small and easier to do! And you can also close the crate door, so she can see the crate but not get into it. The MM definitely adds value for the tunnel (and also makes the crate a little harder, but that is fine.
And, when the MM is not out there, you can reward her for getting into the tunnel even if she doesn’t go all the way through it – successive approximations! We can take the baby steps of the behavior and then build it up.
>> I plan to revisit this a number of times over the next week or so to strengthen the understanding of this activity and to work in to more distance from the obstacles with correct choices made>>
No need to do a lot of this – let latent learning kick in a bit rather than do a lot of sessions. It is I bet if you do a little bit every few days, you will see learning really blossom! I tend to do these types of deep-thinking and verbal processing games maybe once or twice a week, tops.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! I am glad she is feeling better!!
I have a set of MAD channels, they are really nice! Basically, to introduce them, you take 6 poles, open them up really wide and put the MM inside the channel, like between poles 3 and 4 and send her to it. If she gets it right, happily, once or twice? Then put the MM between poles 4 and 5. Then move it back to between poles 5 and 6 – then put it on the very end of the base past pole 6. Then move it several feet past the end of the base.
Then start to add some easy angles through the 6 poles. You are sending this whole time and not moving much at all.
Then repeat the process with 12 poles. If at any point she is confused, go back to the MM inside the poles.
Once she can go through 12 poles (might take a couple of sessions) you can start adding more independent movement from you!
>> I tried adding gates onto my weaves to see if that made it any easier for Nox to stay in while I left to get to the other side of the dog walk. I had varying degrees of success. I think I need to practice this without the dog walk in the picture so I have more options for gradually making it harder with increased distance both laterally and being behind her.>>
Two ideas for you on this:
using the Raise Your Game challenges with layering, replace the jump with a set of 6 poles, with the visual obstruction. This will begin to teach the concept of layered weave poles.Separately, on a course with the DW there – replace the weaves with a straight tunnel, to teach her the concept of “go allllll the way out there and do a thing”.
Even with gates, still too hard and there is a lot of frustration (more failure than success here) so you will want to take the poles out of this context until you have trained the progression with them. Remember to count your failures! And if she does get one success… don’t ask again. This is especially important with the weaves, which are very hard on the dog’s body.
Yes a pattern game is better when the other dog barks 🙂 That can help change her behavior when that happens by creating default engagement with you!
On the full run – Nice opening! That looked smooth and fast! Stay connected after the DW until you see her looking at and moving towards the next jump, then you will be able to get better commitment.
When exiting the tunnel after the weaves, you can be accelerating into the RC before the frame that will help drive her forward – and then you can send to the frame while layering so you can be a few steps further ahead at the threadle. Layering there will basically allow you to cut straight across the field to the threadle jump 🙂
And yes, as you noted – more connection needed on the last backside after the poles. That is a good spot to keep moving forward on the parallel path to the backside while cuing the backside, until you see her turn and lock onto the line to the entry wing – then you can slide outta there to get the line to the last jump.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! Sounds like a crazy couple of weeks for you!!!
>. On the first attempt, as he came out of the tunnel he started immediately back to me, but did go back out to the jump>>
Yes, I think he was just surprised for a moment then got right back on track. Yay!! And the thrown reward really cemented his good decision there too. The rest of the layering looked great, especially with the big send aways after the wrap on 4!!!
>>The other spot that we had some bobbles was on the wrap on jump 4. I think in watching the video I was facing the jump and maybe that’s what made him back jump it? >>
I think he was surprised by your proximity to the jump (usually we move away after a wrap) so the back jump was a baby dog moment 🙂 You were further away at :47 and he was great. I think you can keep nice and close like you did at :33, but move more slowly so he can finish the wrap for now, before the send to 5, so he understands the context.
WHOA! Look at that wrap away on 4 at the end! NICE!
>>I think he was pretty successful in general, but it wasn’t always very smooth.
I agree -hugely successful! And pretty darned smooth!! A couple of questions but overall really strong!
Zane looked fabulous too! The 1-2-3 layer was easy for him.
For the throwback on 5, you can add a little more deceleration, so he can collect a little more into the turn on 5.>. Again with Dice, there were issues on the wrap option. I think it means my handling is in need of improvement since both boys were scratching their heads a bit on this one. lol
They had different questions 🙂 Dice understood the wrap, but not the send back out to 5. He got the send nicely on the 2nd rep! On that 2nd rep, you hesitated halfway through the wrap so he dropped the bar. So, doing the rotation earlier like you did at :46 should work perfectly for him, and keep throwing the reward for finding 5.
>> I didn’t try the switch away with Dice because he had been long enough already and I think I’ll need to break it down a bit.>>
You can break it down by starting him closer – I think he will read it is you handle it the same way you did with Dice. That looked great!
And you can definitely move to the next set of sequences, building up the layering to find the jump behind the tunnel 🙂
Great job!!
TracyHi!
She is looking very confident and happy with her plank targeting! So in the interest of obsessing on how to get the absolute fastest teeter performance with a 4on – I think you should move the target so it is attached to the outer edge of the board, kind of hanging off the board. That way her little feet are right at the very end of the board. The closer we can get her feet *back feet* to the end of the board, the faster the teeter performance will be. She is stopping with her front feet a couple of inches from the end of the board (due to target placement). And if the front feet are hanging off the very edge of it, that can be one of the clearest possible things for 4on criteria.
She had a little trouble at the end when you were moving past the end of the board, so slow down your motion more (kind of like motion override, stay in motion but be sooooo sloooooow for now). And take 2 or 3 steps more after you see her stop to be sure she is not cuing off any deceleration.
Looking at the BCs and wraps –
You got your timing with the blinds going really well on the right turns (:47, :56, 1:05, 1:14 for example)! the left turn blinds were harder to time because those are harder turns for her. I loved the timing at :30 – but she said it was too early. She found :37 to be more agreeable 🙂 So keep rewarding at the wings on those left turn blinds (placed reward or throw it to her) so you can keep getting earlier on the start of the blinds. was betterOne the key things with the blinds and the spins, especially on the tight turns, is to try to reconnect with eyes aand not with your hand at your side as the connector – get that hand out of the way LOL! the dog side arm should be behind your bum as you finish the blinds so you can reach back with your eyes to connect. That will make the turns much tighter because she can respond sooner. Having the dog side arm at your side delays the connection because it takes a while for her to see the new connection, so she is a little later to respond. You will see a big difference if you are making the connection more about your eyes than your hands 🙂
Fun race track at the end!!
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
>. I’ve somehow sped up the first 30 seconds enough that I sound like one of the Munchkins>>
Ha! I thought you were just going really fast and were really excited LOL!
You both did a great job here – I am glad you got the toy involved early on, because want him to still be able to do tis game even in a higher arousal state (and he was perfect of course, with the toy and with the added distance between the barrels, and when you went to the backwards sending).
When you did the backwards sending, click/treat to you for showing VERY clear cues with your arm, leg, and the all-important connection shift. It looks like he had no questions – great commitment and lovely turns! Super!
Since everything is looking so good, for the next session(s) add even more distance so you are running more 🙂 And you can add in the race tracks and the spins!!
Great job here!
TracyAh yes! What a difference! She found the jump threadle brilliantly! The verbal and the handling were definitely clearer. And look at he first rep at :06 – you were saying ‘right here’ but had you tunnel threadle arm up, so she almost went to the other side of the tunnel. Good girl!!!
And it looks like she also found the backside with the outside arm (after the tunnel). Very nice!! Great session here!
TracyHi!
Looking at pop out 3 – the wrap 1-2 looked good!
The push to the slice on jump 2 was faster, even with the zig zag line 1-2. You can smooth that our by lining her up at 1 so she is facing the backside of 2 (so she doesn’t have to turn after landing – she was facing straight on 1 so had to turn to her right after landing at 1 to find 2)For the tandem turns – you are getting the shoulder turns and cues but I think you are also trying to go fast while this is happening, so she never gets the chance to process the cues and make the turn. Slow it down so you can show her the shoulder turn when she exits the tunnel, then turn her head, then indicate the jump. The decel is the key! This is what you did at 1:01 – slowed it all down and stayed near her line – and it looked great! At 1:14 you were maybe a little slowed down so turning her back to the jump was a little late, but it was still a strong rep there.
>>I guess I forgot about tunnel breaks since we’ve been going to the straight jump on the prior course.>>
I don’t think it was a tunnel break issue – it was a timing issue of the cues. On every tunnel entry, you were running straight forward – and all of the directions/name cues came either after she was in, or at exit. Remember to call her/use the left verbal before she enters the tunnel (while she is still a solid 6 feet away from the entry) and then the tunnel exits will be easy.
On the wrap at jump 6:
>>Third rep. I’ve no idea why she turned right so tight at 6. My plan was left. Obviously, I didn’t execute that. But, it was a lovely turn!>>
The right run is the more natural line for the dog, and a faster line – and also the direction you were facing at :46 so she turned right really nicely! To get the left wrap which is what you wanted, stay on the takeoff side (you were past it at :30 and got the back jump) and face the left wrap wing, decelerating, til you see her collect into the left turn then you can do the cross and move to 7.
Pop out 4:
For the german – excellent distance on the send to the backside a 2! As you move forward, shift your connection and point to the landing spot with your dog side arm to get commitment. You were looking at her on the first rep an at 1:49 . She did commit when you stopped moving and used your right arm, but shifting connection to the landing spot will get commitment while you move forward so you might be able to get the backside more easily.
The threadle opening worked to get you there to show the push to 4! Nice!!!The threadle wrap here is a good option! One way to think about it is to turn your shoulders AND your feet (as you slow down) – you were turning your shoulders away like at 2:03, but not your feet, so it still looked like a front-side cue. So all physical cues should turn away, pointing parallel to the line you want her to take then turning her back to the threadle.
And now that she is gaining more experience, she is reading the handling really well – so be sure to always be turning to the line you want. At 2:00 she turned to the right like a RC because that is the line of motion you were showing. Keep turning the shoulders to keep facing the lines you want.
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
