Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Good morning!
The threadle is looking good, she is definitely getting the hang of the in-and-out behavior (and even caught herself from going to the wrong side a couple of times! Yay! Nice timing of the MM click too!
>>I hope I’m not moving my threadle hand too much? Do I need to stay totally still?>>
Yes, that threadle hand was moving too much and being too helpy 🙂 She was heading to the threadle hand correctly but because you were moving the hand, she was using that as the cue to go take the bar. Since we want her to go take the bar as a default behavior on her own, your hand/upper body needs to be frozen in place until after she arrives at the MM (your MM clicker finger can move but that is all LOL!!!) You will see as we add motion that the upper body holds position the whole time even as the feet move, because if we turn our shoulders or move our arms forward on the threadle or serp, we inadvertently cue the dog to go past the next bar or we create a handler dependence to jump the jump.
Tnunel threadles are looking really good with the right turns and the verbal + motion!! The left turn double whammy looked good! On that first right turn double whammy, you needed to ‘catch’ her on the tunnel exit with more connection before starting the threadle – she was very clever to still find the other tunnel entry (definitely rewardable!)
VERY nice adjustments on the next reps to get that clear connection! She did get a couple of correct turns to the right with the double whammy but I think 2 things were happening – there was a lot more motion coming from the first tunnel pass, plus she might have been getting tired. So good job rewarding her, now we let latent learning work its magic 🙂 And also at the start of the next session in a day or two, start further down towards the opposite side of the tunnel and work the threadle to the right with a little more motion and distance coming into it.
The minny pinny is looking really good! She seems pretty independent with it already, so for the FC & turn and burn, you can do the FC and move away even sooner. You were doing the FC then taking a step towards the exit wing before moving away – you can add challenge by not taking that step towards the exit wing (we humans tend to not even realize we are taking that extra step LOL!!)
Rear crosses:
>> but I wasn’t sure we were headed in the right direction on progress.
You totally are! It was a good session!!! She was able to read the rear crosses in both directions. Yay!
>>She was really bouncy & was not hitting the prop. I did some refreshing on sending to the prop and side sends to the prop (not pictured). I’m thinking we’ll need to keep the value for touching the prop for the Get Out game.>>
No worries that she was going over the prop but not really hitting it. The prop is a jump replacer so now that there is more speed and more complexity to the handling, it is find to run over it without the paw hits. The paw hits will happen on the turning games like the rotated sends, but not necessarily on the games where the pups stay in motion without tight turns. You might find that she hops over it on the on the get out game too, which is fine – the goal is that the pups use the props to go towards and over, and we only need the good paw smacks on the tight turns 🙂
Her only question on the rear crosses here was at :11 when you were a little too early and pushed her off the RC line too soon. And I think her bouncy bouncy approach happens when she is not entirely sure – but as soon as she is sure, the bouncy bouncy goes away. It is a processing thing: she is trying to process the rear cross (which is HARD) and her movement to the prop – so she is prioritizing the rear cross and then it is normal to see a young dog lose a bit of coordination 🙂
Great job on these!! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
>>Other people and dogs are also great, but to get him to focus on me without distractions I think is also great.>>
yes, totally agree! Sometimes we don’t want to think about distractions, we just want to do some fun games LOL!
The perch work is going really well!
>> I was clicking for the rear-end movement or for putting his feet on the box, since they both seemed to happen at the same time. >>
Small dogs and their darned fast feet LOL!!! But it was all good, he was getting some good hind end movement going! Two ideas for you to add to the next session:
– add more angles to the cookie toss, so the cookie toss causes him to end up parallel to your legs then even a bit behind you. That will allow him to get on the perch from a different angle and then pivot all the way back to center, so you will see more steps.
– when you click, toss to the other side immediately rather than feed in position then toss – that will start to get him to pivot past center, in anticipation of the toss the other direction 🙂
On the 2nd video – you’ve got a stay happening here! Woot woot! He did best when you started next to the platform, let him off his sit, then moved away – he rocked all of those 🙂 He did consider offering the begging but was SO CUTE when he reminded himself to get his feet down and slammed his butt into position. Good boy!
So keep going this route for a few more sessions, adding more distance & duration. And if you so someplace to train, throw the platform in the car so you can use it there too 🙂 After a couple more sessions, you can start to replicate this game on the ground/without the platform, so he transitions the stay to the ground and we can start to fade te platform.
Great job! Stay warm 🙂
Tracy
Hi!
He did really well here! All good sessions today!When you are sending him around the 3 wings, you don’t need the arm cue to help him all the way around -I think he did just fine by himself 🙂 The cookie hand was a little distracting LOL! And he was great when you didn’t have the hand helping him.
Good reward placement!!!! That really got a lovely turn after the 3rd wing.
When you add the verbals, start with empty hands and gently hold his collar. Then while holding him start the verbal, say it 3 or 4 times… then let go and step/point to the setup. And keep saying the verbal (left, left, left) so he hears it as he continues his turning. That will really help solidify the verbal as a cue and attach it to the behavior.
When you switched to the toy, he did really well with the toy because he was not watching a cookie hand 🙂 And it was great to see him get onto the toy even after eating a few treats! Yay!!! That was a big moment!!
Nice work here – do you have some jump bumps you can use to add to this, or some pool noodles cut in half? He is ready for the next step 🙂
Great job!
TracyHi! Nice session here too!
!
When he was on your left side at the beginning, things were really nice: you were walking straight and not pushing into his line too much. I think the right side is not as comfortable for you – you were not as straight and pushing into his line more there. So try to walk straight on the right side too 🙂He had some errors of ending up on the front side a few times, and it was because of your motion & upper body position (he has not yet fully learned the verbal).
Two things will help:
Set the line with more motion from ahead of him. At :51 and 1:07 when he is getting the cookie, you waited for him then he ended up getting ahead of you. So when he is getting the cookie, you can start moving up the line so he is not next to you and can see the line with you a little ahead and moving faster. You did this really well at 1:18 where you kept moving and set the line nicely!Also, add more connection to his eyes, and don’t use your dog-side arm to point ahead as much. When the arm was high and ahead of you, it broke connection so when he is getting past you at :55 and 1:10 , your left arm is pointing ahead which turns your chest/shoulders to the front side of the jump. That is why he took the front of the jump there.
You were more connected at 1:43 and that totally helps! On these, I like to remind myself to keep my fingers pointing to the dog’s nose the whole time (never ahead, never high) as I make eye contact – that turns our shoulders to the backside lines and that helps the dogs a lot because they read our shoulders, not our hands.
Only having one cone out there will help too, because it will look less like a front side jump. That will help him find the cone you want – then eventually we add the rest of the jump.
Nice work!
TracyGood morning!
>.You said a few times don’t switch the toy in your hand. I still do. Automatically, not trying to sabotage>>
Yes, we do it without even realizing it, I totally understand 🙂 So the easiest thing to do it stick the toy in your pocket or under your shirt 🙂 It will feel weird at first but it will be much easier to do the handling without the toy. Then when it is time to reward, you can run a few steps then take it out while he is chasing you. We don’t need a precision reward in this game (meaning, we don’t need to be very exact with placement or timing) so it is fine to take an extra moment to dig it out of your pocket.
The FCs and racetracks went really well!! One small detail:
When he is on your right, accelerate forward for a few more steps, then decel and rotate (like you do when he is on your left). You are really clear with the decel-then-rotate when he is on your left but running a bit sideways when he is on your right so he is not always sure if he should go to the wing or stay with you.
Great job!!
TracyGood morning!
I think overall the backside game is going well! He is finding the backside barrel really easily – nice job with the connection and line of motion!
>>I had a question about why Bob doesn’t always come around the jump bump but I watched my video and I think I answered it: I’m going to forward toward the bar and putting pressure on him?>>
Yes – he is still learning the eventual default behavior of taking the bar/bump no matter where you are – so when he didn’t take the jump, it was because you were pressuring forward a bit too much and dropping the reward too late.
Now, the pressure on the line is fine (thinking ahead to things like German turns) so the reward placement will be the key to get him to take the bump:
bearing in mind that we are not waiting for the pup to take the bump, we are dropping the toy there as the reward for going to the correct side of the barrel, you can drop the toy with the dog-side hand so it is easier for him to get the toy as you pressure forward. And look back at the toy when you drop it (rather than looking at him) and that will help too!)
For example, when he starts on your left side, the toy can be in your left hand, scrunched up 🙂 As he gets to the correct backside part of the barrel and you continue to pressure forward, you can drop the toy on the ‘landing’ side of the bump with your left hand. In the oopsie reps, the toy was in the other hand and late being placed (and you were looking at him and not at the landing spot), so he was unsure of where to look and where to go.
The minny pinny is going well too – good job catching yourself with the wrong verbal on the first rep LOL!! We all do it, but very few of us catch ourselves before letting the dog go LOL!!!
He is not entirely sure of the footwork yet, so keep the wings touching for now so he can sort out the bouncing. On the left turns, he was trying to stride it, change leads, etc and on the right turns, he would bounce the first gap then add a stride. So keeping things closer will be easier to get the bounce on the bend (we don’t need to expand the minny pinny any time soon 🙂 )
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
We had some gross storms yesterday too – it was a great day to stay indoors LOL!
>>Hotsauce is Bazinga’s soul sista!!!!❤️ They are boing-y! Thank you for the videos – they were helpful.>>
Great! The Boing Sisters have to help each other out LOL!
>> I have a funny ticktok of her doing her boing” for the MM when she was much tinier.
Link please! I would love to see it 🙂
>> It is interesting that she doesn’t do it when it is paired with the tunnel, so maybe the novelty wears off in each situation.
Could be that the novelty wears off, or the stride pattern is different in the tunnel – but now that I think back, Hot Sauce didn’t boing for the MM after the tunnel either. Hmmmm!
>>I am thinking that I need to change my left wrap verbal from RevRevRev. The “R” is messing with my head as my brain tries to confirm what direction I’m sending to & then what word to use. Would it be super confusing to Bazinga if I change it now?>>
It won’t be confusing to her, the verbal is not solidified yet. I can see why Rev as a left verbal would be hard because the R leads you to right.
Have fun!
TracyGood morning!
She did a great job here with the find my face game! Nice!
Remember to use your ‘get it’ marker when you toss the treat away. And at this stage, you can use the get it to toss the treat away after she finds your face too, rather than rewarding from your hand.You can also throw the treat sooner, when she is arriving at your side, rather than waitnig for her to curl all the way in front to make direct eye contact. That will make it easier to gt back on track when things go awry in a sequence 🙂
Sits – she already had some good stay foundation so a couple of ideas to polish it up:
– you can add a more ‘formal’ line up to make sure she is facing the correct direction and both feet down on the ground before you lead out. She was responding to the sit cue pretty immediately, but was sometimes facing the wrong way or had a foot up, so she was moving as you lead out. Since we don’t want any movement, you can use a line up to help her – either a moving hand target at your side to get her lined up, or a between-your-feet-line up. And then let her get both front feet down before you move away
– no need to add crouching or bending to this, I think she feels some pressure with that and then starts offering other behaviors (like a down). You can use the toy play as a way to add more arousal, and also you can move away faster to add more arousal while maintaining the stay.The next steps are too do all of this… in front of her prop 🙂 The prop is a jump replacer so it helps her learn to stay in front of something that is super high value without creating any struggles in front of an actual jump or tunnel )
Great job here!!
TracyHi! She is kinda medium sized so a shorter distance will help 🙂
You can try the passing games diagonally across the barn, maybe? And when one dog is doing the recalls, the other dogs can be out, walking around, doing the pattern games for cookies or toys so they are not at the end of the leash wanting to chase the dog that is running 🙂
T
Good morning!
>Motion. YES—She is continual motion always at all times. We did platform when she was wee and she waited well, outgrew the platforms and seemed to get really frustrated with waiting.>>
Time for a bigger platform 🙂 that can be used in training loops. That can make the waiting element fun because it predicts reinforcement and predicts action. One issue with constant motion is that it can be self-stimulating for high arousal. The other issue is that is causes us humans to rush so our mechanics get sloppy…which is frustrating for the dog, and frustration builds higher arousal. So to break that cycle, using a platform in a training loop will help: she waits on the platfom (standing on it is fine, doesn’t have to be a sit or down), you get into your start position for whatever skill. you release her to you to the start position. You start the rep, reward her, then send to the platform (rward again) and do the next loop. The platform can be added to the start position, or off ot the side, depending what the skill is. And tons of reinforcement for being on the platform will help too!
>>She does not wait well in an open crate, but sends herself to any crate frequently.
It seems like she likes crates! So you can play old school Susan Garrett-style crate games too, to work the waiting in the crate too. Those can be super fun! A high rate of reinforcement helps build up that skill as well.
>> have held her collar before rights and lefts. Holdback like that brings her up more of course.
Does she amp up when your hand goes on her collar, or when you use opposition reflex? I don’t use a lot of opposition reflex with collar grabs, so you can just put your fingers under her collar, hold it gently, and then let her do the left or right after you have said the verbal a few times. It should be almost boring 🙂
If she amps up with just your hand on her collar in the presence of “work”, you can play a resilience game of collar grab then treat scatter for her to sniff a bunch of treats out of the grass or a snuffle mat. That (the sniffing) practices the self-regulation and bounce back from higher arousal (from the collar hold).
Let me know what you think and how she does!
TracyHi!
>>One funny thing is that your Max Pup Music is now a trigger. He knows it means something is coming. Cracks me up.>>
Ha! I have heard this before from other pup owners LOL! The MaxPup music changes with each class level, so you will be able to have new tunes to listen too LOL!
Looking at the first part when the barrels were someone close together:
The rocking horses are going well! He is balancing speed with turning – not slipping, not smashing the barrels, not grabbing for the toy. You were connected and cuing clearly – it looked really good!This is the stage where I would add the wrap verbals – less handler motion means it is easier for both of you to process the verbals.
And for the race tracks, you can send and leave sooner, so you are not right at the barrel turning with him.
I think on some of the more complex reps here, you were making it up as you did it (meaning, deciding which handling to do in the heat of the moment) so your cues were a little late. Give yourself a walk through before you do the rep with him, so your plan is at your fingertips.
When you spread the barrels apart…. holy cow that was a massive leap in distance between 1:12 and 1:15! The distance went from 2 strides to about 5 or 6 strides – It was a bit too much, and there were errors. His commitment is strong so we don’t want him to start looking at you too much because the barrels are much further apart. Move the barrels apart more incrementally so that there is only a stride added at a time. That will maintain the flow and accuracy (the speed is already there so I am not worried about speed :)) That will also help you maintain your connection and spit out the verbals because you won’t have to run as much all of a sudden LOL!
>>I kind of feel like both of us are being pretty careful and feeling each other out for lack of a better way of describing it. Is that right for where we are at or should I start adding more excitement/running? >>
I don’t think you were being careful, I think you were being clear (especially when the barrels were closer). He was lovely when you did that – smooth, correct, fast, and not really touching the barrels. Yay! You don’t need more excitement – that is his job LOL! And he is already very speedy so we don’t need to ask for more – we just need to help him understand what we would like him to do 🙂
>>I want to make sure he is having fun.
He seemed to be having a great time, and he got lots of rewards. I didn’t see anything in his behavior or body language that indicated he was stressed or sad or frustrated – he seemed happy!
>> I’m wondering about the balance of us (meaning me 😉 ) getting it together (not rushing things) while also letting him feel the “wind in his hair” and enjoy it. Not sure if what I described makes sense?>>
Totally makes sense! This game is about turning, so there is a bit of wind in the hair in the race tracks and he was great. He is not frantic at all, from what I can see. Because he is not acting frantic, maybe it feels like he is not having fun? But frantic is not fun – he was fast and accurate, and definitely engaged, so I think he was feeling the wind in his hair and having fun 🙂 The straight line games like the recalls and toy races have more good wind in the hair moments too.
Nice work! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
The recall is going well too!!
Remember to run around the holder – you were sometimes running around her, sometimes doing the old school agility recall which is not as exciting 🙂 One big thing on these: let him ‘run through’ the toy. What I mean by that is as he reaches the toy and grabs it, you let go so he has it and you are not holding it. That will eliminate the high speed torque on his neck and spine (you can see t at :22). Then when he has it, you turn and run the other way, for him to bring back to you for more playing. So it works the recall AND the retrieve 🙂 and is much safer on their bodies. I know that a lot of people in agility AND flyball still “catch” their dogs on the toys that way, but running through the toy and not getting yanked is much better for their bodies (and easier for us humans).You had another dog walking around while he was doing his recalls, and he was 1000% focused on you. SUPER! So when he is the helper/distraction dog, you can be playing the pattern game to help him not get too excited about the motion of the other dog. Food is easier to play the game with, but might not be that interested in that context – so you can play it with 2 toys 🙂 The pattern game while watching other dogs run is a great foundtion for waiting outside the ring at an agility trial!
Great job!
Tracy
