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Good morning!
>> I noticed in the video the tape wore off of his tags. I’ve retaped them but didn’t notice while we were at Suzie’s.>>
I noticed it too LOL!! Yes, taping them is one less thing for the adolescent brain to have to process.
He did well here! The bending is looking generally good (see below abou the spacing) and your reward placement is good too. My only suggestion is to hold his collar more consistently to start the verbals, so he hear them first then starts to move. You started doing it more on the 2nd part of the session, but he was not sure if he should move immediately (like in the first part) or wait til released. So the more consistently you hold his collar to say the verbal a few times, the less he will try to pull your arm out to start 🙂
>> I’m wondering if I should keep them at the same spacing until he gets his footwork consistent between each section/direction. Not sure how much that matters?>>
It matters for now – keep the spacing the same and no need to spread the wings apart yet. He was having some trouble with the footwork for the 3rd bump/bar in each direction, losing balance a little and having to sort out strides. So you can keep the wings together for now, we don’t really need to spread them out at all any time soon 🙂 and that way he can sort out his foot work. You can also try it with food rewards so he doesn’t try to go quite as fast yet.
Great job!
TracyThis is the rocking horse clip:
Ah yes, I see more of the constant motion from her here – all action all the time, starting the reps before you are ready, and not offering being stationary (what would she do if you asked her to stop moving? Would she get frustrated/aroused? How does she do with her stays?) As a side note: does she have an off switch in the house, when she is not training?Stopping for the treat seems fine, she does it, but she keeps moving right after it. I think adding in the cato board or some type of platform for her to wait on will really help – ‘waiting’ then becomes a fun bit of ‘work’ so she doesn’t want to stay in constant motion. That will also give you a moment to reset your mechanics, which makes things smoother too!
Being able to teach her some stillness is actually going to hugely help arousal as well! Let me know if she has any platform training underway (or waiting in a crate with the door open) because that will make things smoother for both of you!
As you add more to this give, you can do the spins/blinds sooner (start them as she is arriving at the barrel). That will allow you to have more time to show her the connection, like at :29 for example: it looked like a spin because there was a blind but the blind needs to start just as she arrives at the barrel so she can see the connection on the next side before she exits. There was another right at the very end, but the video cut off before she exited the barrel.
Nice work! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
>> I’m not always such a low energy mom
The energy here was correct for this particular game 🙂
She turned left and right really nicely! You can stretch out the verbal (lehhhft lehhhft instead of leftleftleftleft for example) so help her differentiate it from wrap verbals. Nice reward placement too!
One thing I notice is that she seemed to want to stay in continuous motion between the reps – is that something you notice in training? Ideally, for this game – you start with her stationary at your side, with your hand on her collar, say the verbals, then let go so she can start. Will she allow a collar touch in this situation? You could split it and shape it, with the reward being the action: your hand moves towards the collar, then send her through the setup. Eventually, you put a finger on the collar, then send her through the setup (my guess is action is more reinforcing than a cookie in this context).
And to get the standing still and lining up, you can use a platform like a Cato plank or something so she can get on it or stay on it after the reward, so you can reset and then cue the next rep. The cato plank or board can be in the starting position so she gets rewarded for the minny pinny then you cue her to get back on the plank then you reward that. Let me know if that makes sense!
Nice work here!
TracyHi! It is good to see the videos!
short clip of backing up here – she did well! One suggestion is to toss the treat low and towards her front feet, to get her head a little lower and to get even more distance/more steps on the backing up.Onwards to the next ones!
TracyHi!
>>Technology and I are not close friends, or maybe I’m not following the rules.
My guess is that it is technology, because there are not that many rules here LOL!
>> Finally I can almost hook to her collar without a dropped treat or licky mat. She’s good at “get dressed” so we can get into an over large collar or her Brilliant k9 but attaching the harness is hit and miss. >>
Have you tried shaping her to put her own head through a big martingale, so you don’t have to wrestle or potentially be mouthed or muzzle punched? The martingale is not the best for control but it is certainly easier to shape her to put herself into it so you can walk her a bit.
>She is still way over aroused when the toy is there, still avoids bringing or yielding toys and I don’t have a workable plan for overcoming this yet.
Will she trade for another toy or treat scatter?
Also, once the foundation resilience games are in place, I recommend playing the resilience games with the toy as a distraction. The toy can be in the room, up high on a counter, not used…. just simply having the toy in the picture while the resilience games (pattern game in particular) help her deal with the arousal.
And of course, the overarousal struggle can be physiological, meaning the training alone can’t help her completely. Many dogs do amazingly well with behavioral help in the form of pharmaceutical intervention, to get the ball rolling 🙂 It is something that I would not hesitate to do with my own dogs. Plus, the collar/leash/harness issues might be a form of resource guarding (dogs can resource guard their own bodies) so behavioral help can certainly make big progress there too.
>>But know this class has helped me tame my own demons a bit and my puppy is having a blast.
Yay! And definitely prioritize the resilience games, as they will be the biggest factor in dealing with the arousal issues.
Tracy
Hi!
This is going well too, with a couple of reps in each direction. Very nice! She is sorting out her footwork but I do think having the bars a little closer together will be easier. Julie (hi Julie!) gave great advice to lengthen the verbals because that will help Snap differentiate the left/right turns from the wraps or GO lines.
My only other suggestion is to hold her collar so you can say the verbals before letting her start moving 🙂
And since this is going so well, you can add in some countermotion, in the turn-and-burn style: when she is going around the minny pinny, you can do a FC and start walking the other direction (just like yu did on the barrel with the turn and burn game). This will challenge her to maintain her commitment even while you are moving the other way.
Great job on these!!
TracyOne rep here to the left, she was a good girl ignoring distractions! It is hard but she was good to come back and finish the left turns 🙂
T
Hi!
This had several reps, they were really strong!! She does well to her right but I think you will find the bouncing is more powerful if you shorten up the distance between bars (see above). The verbals sounded good – one thing to add is gently holding her collar, saying the verbals a couple of times… then letting her start moving. That will help solidify the verbals as a cue.Onwards to the next video below 🙂
TracyHi!
She is doing well on these! This video is just one rep – one thing I see on this rep (and on the next video too) is that this setup is challening for her footwork! She was all like “WHERE DO MY FEET GO AND HOW CAN I STILL GO FAST” haha 🙂 So you can help her out by shortening the spaces between the bars, so she can bounce the distances rather than try to stride the distances. So the bars will be more like 3 feet apart from center-to-center so she can bounce more.
Tracy
Hi!
Backside wraps: he did well on these in terms of commitment, but he did have a couple of questions that I think will be easy to answer:
>>a consequence I think of me setting him up incorrectly.>>
Yes, I think the start of each rep was not as clear as it could have been, so he was not able to respond as quickly. Try to line him up in a clear, consistent start position for each rep. You were doing something different on each rep and starting each rep before either of you were in the right spot 🙂 I suggest holding his collar, making sure you in the right spot relative to the barrel (so he can see the whole barrel), start saying the verbal cue (and don’t say “go” before it 🙂 ) and then let him go. When he starts to move, then you can start to move as well.
At :59 for example, he was wide with a question, but it was caused by mechanics – he was looking at you, you were looking at the barrel, you were blocking his line to the barrel (which pushes him wider because you are on the tight line), so he was not sure where to be then you started moving… he got it but we can make it smoother by letting him see the whole barrel for a moment, hearing the verbal, then starting the rep.
You can also make it more predictable by starting in the same spot on the same side of the barrel each time in the session – the reps started in different places a lot, so he had to figure it out anew each time. If you start in the same spot, he can focus on his mechanics and not have to focus on your mechanics as much 🙂
Perch work – he was all about the sit on this one, the sit has a LOT of value 🙂 so you can start each session by rewarding anything other than a sit: if he sits, throw the cookie to the side so he doesn’t not get rewarded in the sit position. You won’t want to withhold the reward if he is quick and sits, but you can make the sit inefficient for him (response cost) but tossing the cookie off to the side if he sits.
He was moving his hind end a bit when you moved (yay!) but he definitely was thinking about the sit 🙂 I think the ‘return to center’ approach will actually be easier for him – you can sit in a chair, tossing treats to the side so he gets on the perch, pivots back to center, and then you toss the treat to the other side. This will also lower your hands a bit which might help him not want to sit by lowering his head position. The higher head position with you standing was tilting his weight back to his rear (which makes the sit easy to do). And a lower heigh position (with his chin parallel to the ground will tilt his weight forward a bit more, making the sit less easy to do.
I think the ‘return to center’ approach will actually be easier for him – you can sit in a chair (which lowers your hands a bit)
On the minny pinny – he definitely seems to understand the setup! Yay! So now you can solidify and attach the verbals even more: start by holding his collar here too, saying the verbal and then letting go so we can attach the verbals. So basically anything with verbals attached (the left/right, the backside wraps, etc) so start with a clear line up where you hold him, then stay the verbals, then let him move. Hearing the verbals first will help establish them as cues (otherwise they become too much “blah blah blah” if the pup is already moving LOL!)
And remember to reward with him sliding across in front of you, between the wings and you so he ends the minny pinny with the additional turn (and he won’t lose the cookie in the grass because you can reward from your hand).
No need to expand the wings any further, but what you can add is a bit of countermotion – turn-and-burn style! As you send him through the pinny n one direction, you do a front cross and start walking the other direction to challenge him to complete his commitment while you are going the other way 🙂Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
The rear cross session is going well, you were able to get in lots of good reps on a really hard skill!! One suggestion:
Have him wear a collar so you can hold him while you throw the cookie – then when it lands, he can lock onto it, you can let go and both of you can move to your spot for the RC. Doing this without a collar is like holding a greased watermelon LOL! And that makes the start awkward, so a collar will help things be smoother for sure.Perch work – shaping getting up on the perch to build value for front feet on it was the main thing happening here at the beginning, and once he got that going, things were much easier. He was moving around it nicely but his head was a little high because you are tall and he is not tall LOL! So when you are standing and moving around, try to bend over so his chin is parallel to the ground. If his head is too high, he will end up shifting weight into his rear which makes it hard to pivot around.
The other option that I think will work with him is to have you in a chair and do the ‘return to center’ version of this, where the rewards are thrown off to the side. Being in the chair will keep his head lower and also he seemed to already be offering the return to center so I think it will be easy for him.Cone wraps:
>>Was he turning the right way on the sends? I felt like I was sorta doing some awkward version of a FC instead of how nice and smooth yours looked>>
Yes, he was correct! It is basically the 2nd half of the FC. On the first rep I think you wanted him to turn the wrong way but he was like “no momma, I got this!” LOL!
The right turns were very easy for him! Left turns are harder, so keep being patient about not moving away too quickly. Great job dropping the reward right at the cone exit at :30, that really helped him solidify the understanding of the left turns!
I think he has reached the stage where this cone is too short, he can basically get his head over the top of it. Time to switch to a big barrel! And also be sure to add in toys so he gets lots of toy play in these games too 🙂
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
Nice session here – She totally thought this was super big fun!!
>> This was her first time with the bump, she kept wanting to stand on it,
Ha! She was probably thinking it was a goat game at first 🙂
She did great here when you got her moving! It was easy to add the verbals and great job with the reward placement too. Only one suggestion: have her wear a collar so you can line her up at your side, slide a finger under her collar so she stays tehre, say the verbals a few times… then let her go. Hearing the verbals before she and you start to move will help attach the verbals to the behavior better, and will also prevent little oopsies like at L41 where she was not sure of where to be (if that happens, you can go to the reset cookie right away, line her up, and start again).
You can also add in the countermotion of the tune-and-burn style exit: as she is doing the minny pinny one direction, you can do the font cross and start walking the other direction to challenge her to maintain her commitment even as you go the other way.
Great job!
Tracy
That is odd! Are you getting an error message? Can you get a screenshot of what you are seeing and send it to support@agility-u.com and we will sort it out.
T
You are doing a great job! One thing that helps me is to make a note of the one thing I need to remember for each training session – for example, I will put “low hands” on a post it note for the perch work sessions 🙂 Or “hand position THEN release” for the serp and threadle games, so I don’t do them at the same time. Post it notes are great, or a white board with one of those markers helps too!
Have fun!
Tracy
