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Hi!
Get out:
>>When we have prop right there on out path, but I do not want him to get to it, I do not reward when he goes by himself? >>
Because the prop has a lot of value, he is going to want to go to it (and that is a good thing :)) You can help him know the difference when you want the out (with the connection and arm cue) versus when you don’t want the out (calling him past it). That way he won’t default to going to the prop for now, and eventually we will build it up so he won’t want to leave his line for it.
>>I am trying to switch between Parallel and Send Out on my command>>
This will work better on the flat, rather than having the jump in the picture at this stage. The jump is a big visual as compared to the little prop, so he was not entirely sure what to look at. And adding the parallel path over the jump before the out to the prop delays the out cue, so he was not sure he was supposed to move away. So for now, you’ll see he has an easier time if you take the jump out of the picture to avoid mixing concepts so he can focus on one cue (the out) rather than the jump and the out to the prop.
One of the interesting things about puppies is watching them grow up and mature – mentally! So at 5 months old, he is great with sorting out each concept. And I think you will see he will be able to put two of the concepts together when he is more like 8-10 months old. My whippet puppy is 5.5 months old and I see the same thing: one concept? Easy peasy! Two concepts together…. not as easy 🙂 This is especially true when it involves physical coordination LOL! Both of our puppies are ALL LEGS right now and will grow into those legs and coordination in the coming months 🙂 Fun times ahead!!!!!
Great job on these! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
Rocking horses – yes, this is a high energy game LOL! It is amazing how fast it tires out us humans haha!!!
>>I was late on blind, lol with 5 month puppy
Ha! You can be sooner on that for sure 🙂
One way to be quicker is to tuck the toy into your pocket or leave it in the same hand (don’t change hands). When you changed the toy from hand-to-hand, it delays the timing of the cue (the blind in this case) and as he gets faster and faster, you have less and less time to do the blind 🙂 If keeping the toy in the same hand is hard for him, it is totally fine to stuff it in a pocket or under your shirt 🙂 This game does not require a precise reward, so it is fine to do it with empty hands then whip out the toy when it is time to reward.You had a really good training moment at :33 and after it: You didn’t have enough connection at :33 so he ended up on the other side of you. Great job just rewarding him (it was handler error not puppy error) and then you made a great adjustment on the next rep to show super clear connection. YAY!! Click/treat for you!
He was totally doing the backwards sending too! Yay! You need to stay quiet on those until you tell him to get the toy… when he was starting it and you said “YES!” He thought it was time to get the toy so came back to you. Try to use a toy marker instead of yes, and don’t say it til he has just about completed the wrap on the backwards sending: those are hard so being quieter for now will really help 🙂
Great job 🙂
TracyHi!
Parallel path with wings – he is finding the parallel path really nicely! No problem with the wings 🙂
The next steps would be to move faster (I bet you can run a bit!) and use a toy 🙂 And you can also add more lateral distance away from it. To get the more lateral distance, you can either have someone hold him (eventually he will have a stay, but for now I would not suggest using it) or you can do a cookie toss to get him starting).Before you add that, though – do you have a jump bump or rolled up towel or something to use instead of a bar? He is too young to have the full coordination for us to add a bar yet (he is trotting over it like a cavaletti, and I don’t want him to jump anything yet), so we can use something like a bump or towel for him to move over at this point.
Great job 🙂
TracyGood morning!
>>Charlie full of energy from 6AM till 8AM. By the time I come home from work to lunch break he is not at his peak.>>
Totally understandable!! My pup is totally awake at 6am… or 10pm. HA! Is it possible to carve out 2 or 3 minutes in the early morning for the high energy games, like rocking horses? The calmer games (like this head turn game) can be at lunch break or evening when he is not as amped up, maybe?
He is doing well with his head turns here!! He was not sure of exactly where to start, so you can have him start by lining up at your side, facing the pool then send him away to the upright for the first wrap like a normal wrap 🙂 It is that 2nd wrap where you can use your hand like you did here, to get him focused on your hand, then turn him away and click. That will lead really nicely into when we add it to the cones 🙂
Nice work!
TracyHi!
He is doing well with the RC concepts!
One suggestion:
Rather than starting several feet behind him, you can be near to him and moving forward on the line for a few steps before cutting on for the RC. A couple of reasons for this suggestion:– when you are behind and NOT moving, he should not really consider driving ahead of you. That is why he was asking if he should be looking forward or not, especially later in the session. You can start next to him more
– being closer means he will see you sooner and more clearly in his peripheral vision.
You can start clearly on one side of him, with both of you far from the prop but next to each other, so you can move forward and he sees you cutting to the next side. And you can also mix in some going straight, no rear cross, so he is not anticipating the rear cross based on you being behind (which is what I think he was doing here – he was rear crossing when he felt you moving with pressure, not when you actually rear crossed. That can caused trouble on some decelerations or wraps because we want him to continue straight on his line even if there is convergence).
>>I was wondering if I should wait for him to look forward or not? He obviously knows where the hat is at so I wasn’t sure if I need focus forward or not.>>
Nope! No need to wait for focus forward – but I think having him next to you, even with you hand on his collar, and you both moving forward will eliminate the need to worry about where he is looking
Nice work!!
TracyHi!
These looked great! No questions from him, from what I could see.I love how the helpers asked if you were threading or serving – keeping ya honest! It all looked clear to me! And to him too. I don’t think you need the “get it” marker anymore, he understands the chain from what I can see and is already driving to the toy.
My only suggestion is to settle into position, get the hand in position, count to 3…. Then release 🙂 Your release and your hand moving into position were getting a little close together in timing and we don’t want him to think that the release is the hand movement/
We build on this soon, so you can back-burner it til we add to it (not this week, it will happen next week :))
Great job!
TracyHi! Happy New Year!
The class ended on December 31st but I am happy to answer questions!
>>I chose to move the jump height up versus flatten. Is my goal to get her up to 24inches. I’ll admit, I tried her at 20 and she did great. Once at 24inches, I go back to working on flattening the jump and move the height back to 8 inches. Do I go all the way up to 24in again before flattening it some more.>>
You don’t need to start back at 8 inches each time you flatten it a little – you can try starting at 12 and see how she does. Getting the angles flat AND full height is really incredibly challenging so not that important because it is so hard on the body. I think getting the angles flat at a high height is good – doesn’t have to be full height.
>>Adding a 3rd jump? When do I do this?
The third jump gets added pretty early in the progression, before it is flattened – because that 3rd jump helps build stamina and balance. 2 jumps are easy… 3 are hard!
>>I did the same progression with the backside and she is at 16in with me moving more. Do I go all the way up to 24 and then try to flatten the jump.
You can flatten things out at a lower height – there is no need to get it at full height, because you can accomplish the strength/balance/coordination at 20 and still see the good effects of it on course at 24″.
>>Only add the 3rd jump when it is flatten?
The 3rd jump usually is significantly harder for the dogs, so add it while the height is still lower (16″) and the angles are still open.
>>can I book an online private/phone call? I do feel committed to continue to work on this and I want to make sure that I am doing it right.>>
I am sure we can find a time for a phone call or zoom call! Let me know what your schedule looks like. Fingers crossed that Mother Nature is kinder to you all in coming weeks!!
Tracy
Hi –
I am so sorry about your dad. I am keeping you in my thoughts, and I am sure your boys are keeping you company. Let me know if you need anything.>>I didn’t actually realize that any behavior between the click and the treat can become part of the behavior, which made me laugh and was eye-opening. I am pretty sure I have put that in my other dog’s training lol, and I would like to not have it for Casper. >>>
I learned it the hard way with my first small dog 🙂 And then I was lucky enough to go to a Bob Bailey seminar and he drilled it into us while we train chickens.

>>This morning when I was talking on the phone to my mom I was also playing with Casper, because playing with puppies is very therapeutic. And he was taking a few steps towards me with this mostly chewed little ball that he likes.>>OMG! He was retrieving! I guess he saw the post about flyball and wanted to practice his ball carrying 🙂 And he is also practicing his bitey ring sport skills by biting your arms too. I suggest wearing a long sleeved hoodie 🙂
I am so glad he brought a smile to your face and to your heart in that moment! Yay Casper!!!!!!
T
Hi!
She was a perfect girlie here! You know she has it when she gets the reward, lines herself up again, and starts without you if you are not quick enough hahaha! Yes, she was not quite as smooth on the right turns but she was able to do them all beautifully! Yay!
So… what do you want your tunnel threadle verbal to be? Time to add it, on easier angles of entry. And also, you can move to the double whammy game (posted last week).
>>I was thinking it would be easy because Frankie is a tunnel sucker big time!
Some dogs are natural tunnel-lovers, and some dogs need to learn and we forget that we taught them as puppies LOL! And some dogs HATE tunnels – so strange, right?!?!?
>>Is there a way to transition from driving to the Manners Minder to returning to me for a treat? In the next video I see that you are holding a toy and Contraband is coming back to you for the reward after he goes through the tunnel.
My highly NOT scientific method of doing this was that I just didn’t put the MM out and used a toy instead LOL! But also bear in mind that CB is a large dog, and we want to promote turning for the large dogs because otherwise they end up wide. For the smallz, I prefer for them to be in extension as much as possible – so even if they look wider on a tunnel exit, they are actually faster because of all of the speed and power. I mention this so you don’t feel the need to tighten her turns at this point: she is a powerhouse! And very small. The dog in my house that puts down the best YPS? One of my smaller girls 🙂 That dog is the widest-looking dog because she is small, she is part Staffy and part Rat Terrier so very front heavy/bully-ish, so I let her run run run on course. She turns just fine and listens beautifully but also lays down amazing times because she is mostly in extension 🙂
>>We practiced the Parallel Path game with a helper & distance & I forgot to hit record! She did really good though. I’ll try another session ang get video
On the barrel games…>>The best sessions never end up on video LOL!!
>>Is there only ever 1 release word? I don’t want to muddy “break” if I get used to useing it. Should I use that only for agility & agility training & another word for day to day stuff? Like releasing from a crate or to their meals?>>
The dogs have us all figured out and there are dozens of release words 🙂 I use ‘break’ in agility to do things like release off the start line in most situations, and I also use it as a crate release. I use ‘get it’ and stuff like as to get meals – so get it is also a release. And verbal directionals are a release 🙂 The dogs have us all figured out 🙂 so you can totally use break in any situation where she should leave a control position and move towards you or into “work”.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyAha! Here is the double whammy 🙂 Perfect! He did really well here and seemed to have fun too 🙂
Question: for your tunnel threadles, will you want to use your dog-side arm, or your opposite arm to go along with the verbal? You were using a little of both and he had some questions about it 🙂 I think you were ,mainly using your opposite arm, which is great! You can make it even more obvious by showing it to him (up high and across your shoulders) – but just walk forward as you do it, rather than using the arm ti flip him to the tunnel or using your motion to step to the tunnel. The verbal and the arm visual are his cues to leave you to go into the tunnel, so we want to help him understand this without needing your motion to turn him into the tunnel.
Great job on all of these! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
On this video, you letting him find the tunnel threadle even more independently, which is great! I think you should now add the double whammy where he gets to do 2 in a row (added last week).
One other thing for him: because he is a tall dude 🙂 you can throw the reward on the tunnel exit, so he exits straight more and powers through. The taller dogs have to scrunch down a bit to get through the tunnels, and if he thinks he is turning on the exit he is going to slow down. So to help him go fast fast fast, throwing the rewards straight on these will really help get the powering through the tunnel 🙂
Great job!
TracyHi!
He did well finding the threadle side tunnel entry! Super!!To help solidify the verbal, try not to help as much with physical cues: You can use the verbal and and the arm but walk slowly forward and resist the temptation to turn to the tunnel or flip your arm… let him turn himself away to the tunnel. And when he does that – you can also turn and throw the reward. You were turning yourself towards the tunnel before he turned to it, so he was reading the physical cues. It will feel WEIRD haha! But it will help get him even more independent.
Tracy
Hi!
He is doing really well with his reverse retrieve!
>>Moving toy – Yes! Laying down – no interest. It will change. I am not worry.
That is pretty normal and I agree – he will develop the love of the dead toy (it is a fun thing to train while sitting on the couch: sending him to a dead toy 🙂
He did well with the retrieving here! Yes, you moved away a little early a few times but then the next few reps were much better! You can also move early but move quietly and walk…. Then when he gets the toy, you can start the happy talk and the running 🙂 That way you can add motion without distracting him from the retrieve.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
>>That one is hard for me. I am very inpatient personYour patience will be rewarded with a great start line stay so you can do big lead outs 🙂
You can start to extend the duration of the sit before the click now – you don’t have to move as much between reps, so he can get the cookie and come back to you to offer the sit. Then, while he is sitting, wait one heartbeat before the click and toss. Then you can start to ping pong: sometimes click immediately when he sits, sometimes wait one heartbeat, sometimes 2 heartbeats, sometimes immediately, etc.
I bet he would LOVE this with a toy too – click then toss the toy back behind him. That would also help him learn to stay even when he is pumped up (because he is going to be pumped up at trials!)
Be sure to NOT release and move at the same time. Either – stand still the whole time, or be moving the whole time. But try to avoid stopping-then-moving because that is how we accidentally build the dog thinking the movement is the release.
And for now, you don’t need to release him forward with your OK at all in these sessions yet 🙂 We can get a more solid stay and then add the release forward.
Great job!
TracyHi!
Nice work with the rotated sending! I love your energy here!
He definitely finds it easier turning to his right on these but he caught on very quickly to his left too! Yay! Super! So for the next session: Start with him turning to his right with the sideways sending, then move to the backwards sending (also turning to his right). Then if that goes well – try to turning him to his left with the sideways sending and then the backwards sending.
Great job!
Tracy
