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Good morning! Her focus here was great (ignoring a lot of birds!) and her understanding of the stay and set point and moving target are all great! I want to adjust the set point itself, because her striding and movement looked a little “crunchy” (too compressed, like there was not enough room to organize herself move off her hind end in the space between the 2 jumps).
A few questions and ideas:
what was the distance between the 2 jumps? 5 feet? And how tall is she? I think I want to try her at 6 feet between the 2 jumps and see what she does.Also, what were the bar heights? I think the first bar was at 4 or 6 inches, which is fine – it looked like she was stepping in really well. The 2nd one looked to be 8 inches, which was a little crunchy – but I don’t think it was height, I think it was the distance between the 2 jumps. So for the first rep of the next session, try the 6 foot distance and the 2nd bar at 6 inches. Then move it to 8 inches and we will see what she does.
One more suggestion: since she is doing well with the stay and the moving target, lead out more before you release her. Be at least 8 or 10 feet past jump 2 when you release, so by the time she lands between 1 and 2, you are 15 feet past jump 2. That should also help de-crunch the striding 🙂
Great job! Let me know how she does with a little more room between jumps.
TracyGood morning!
The wrap proofing game looked great! I love how she was totally into this! Yay! Yes, adding some handler motion totally helped her understand that it was OK to go to the tunnel even with the wing right there (and it was ok to go to the tunnel even if she skipped the wing LOL!) The wing wrap was the easy part for her and she was great with those, even after coming out of the tunnel. YAY!!!
Since the tunnel was harder, you can build up more value to it without your motion by just doing this exact same thing (holding collar, saying verbal, releasing her) but without the wing there for a session to pump up the value and understanding of the verbal. She definitely needing less motion by the end of this!
She was perfect with her responses in the mini sequences! One detail to add: When you are doing the mini sequences, keep connection while she is behind you. If you kept connection and didn’t point forward til she passed you, then she was perfect! If you pointed forward to the wing before she was passing you, then she got a little confused (1:39). But when you maintained connection and didn’t point forward til she got to you and was passing you, she was perfect (like on the last 2 reps).
>>I tried throwing a cheese stick and she looked at me like I was loco! >>
I mean, it is a little loco to throw cheese sticks but it is also loco for any self-respecting Boston Terrier to ignore them! LOL!!!!
>>For this game I stuck a whole string cheese inside the holee roller!!! That got her interest.>>
This was loco but in a brilliant way and it definitely accomplished getting her head lower and not looking up at you! So if you think she was into this and chasing the hollee cheese roller, then go ahead and add it to the set point 🙂
The smiley face game is going really well. Great connection! The handling looked really lovely! And she totally read the difference between the wraps and the soft turns.
She had some misses on the tunnels, and it was because of your feet 🙂 Every time you kept your feet pointing to tunnel til you were sure she was going in, she went to the tunnel and even drove ahead of you to get it. The misses were at :03 and :55 and 1:33 – this was all when your feet turned away from the tunnel entry before she as locked onto it, so she was following your foot rotation. So keep those feet turned towards the tunnel for longer and watch her face: if she is looking at the tunnel and about 6 or 8 feet from it, you can peel away but if she is not looking at it or is still 10 feet away or more, keep moving towards the tunnel.
>>Directionally Challenged Human Alert!!! I need some way to teach my brain to act fast. I got the left & right turns messed up on the post turns & I practiced ahead of time! I’m going to have to remember to yell the opposite directional from the arm I have out for turns!>>
Totally relatable!!! At this stage of puppy training and adding in the 10,000 new verbals, I do a mental walk through of the verbals before every rep. I remind myself which direction the pup is turning, and if it is a wrap or soft turn, and then practice the verbals for them. Sometimes I only practice in my head, sometimes I do a walk through of the little sequence – but I found that by doing it before every rep, I really improved myself 🙂 Yes, I sometimes still screw up 🙂 But the dogs are very forgiving 🙂
Great job on these!! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! The easiest way to post the video is to load it to YouTube, Vimeo, or Drive and post the link here 🙂
TracyGood morning!
Yes, she could be a bit pent up with all the rain, plus she’s an adolescent and they do spicy things 🙂 I think the Advanced level with the placed toy and also being closer to the wing can help.
Looking forward to the set point video!
TracyI took a lot of coat off her shoulders. She looks weird but got a 14.75 measure!!!! And it was under the supervision of 2 of the most experienced judges in NAFA so I will take it. One more to go! Then I will let her hair grow back haha
Good morning!
I love that you and Helen are having get togethers to train! Yay! And it is great for both dogs indeed!!
Yes, this game is HARD! The combo of switching away and passing an obstacle through a box with you behind him was a brain melter at first!!! Placing a toy definitely helped. Yay! The switch away was the easy part. You can also close off the tunnel by having the ends of it facing down so he sees a tunnel but can’t get in it 🙂
I think he made big progress in this session, though – basically it was an introduction to the concept of NOT taking the first thing he sees, especially when he is on the lead towards it, but to process the verbal and find the line past the obstacle. He was doing great by the end 🙂 So for the next session, you can mix in switch away from the jump to the tunnel, and switch away from the jump to pass the tunnel and find the next jump like you did here.Great job!!!
TracyGood morning!
>>We tried this for Handling Challenge 5! SO MUCH HARD! LOL I had to make it easier so she would be successful. We only tried the easiest position of the jump because it was so challenging for her.>>
It is really hard – I think you were trying to do a lot of it without motion along the line at first and she needed a couple of reps to figure that out. You can move along the line, rather than stand still at it 🙂 As you move along the line and cue the tunnel, you can keep your shoulders open to the tunnel. If you turned your shoulders towards the jump, she was not sure if she should carry on to the tunnel. So that handling and motion along the line should totally help 🙂
Then after a lot of tunnels in a row, it was hard to go back to the backside but she got it on the 2nd rep and also had a pretty high success rate as you were moving on the last part of the session! Nice!!!!
>>What is the difference between “push away” vs “stay on parallel path”? Would push away be just a sharper angle for the dog that is not a parallel path? Here are links to drawings that describe what I’m thinking. Am I getting it? Also is the exit path I’m showing for the backside wraps correct?>
You are totally getting it! The push away and the parallel path are just different angles of approach that are NOT threadles 🙂 Your drawings are perfect! And yes, the wrap versus slice is correct too – but bear in mind that there are lots of variations on the slices and wraps, so the wrap exit can be any variation of exiting towards or around the same wing they entered on, and the slice is any variation of exiting towards or arounf the wing opposite of where they entered. We allow for the variations to use handling, otherwise we would probably need 8 more verbal cues LOL!!!
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning! I am so happy to see you here 🙂
>I got some work in before the rain started…AGAIN.>
The weather has been INSANE!!!!!! Fingers crossed for dry weather ahead.
The wind in your hair game here is off to a good start! I think the hardest part for her is ignoring the toy – which is what you also from yesterday’s sessions too, I think. We want her to work in arousal and learn to handle herself, so we can keep working the mechanics with the toy to help her out.
You can position yourself closer to the wing to help her commit to it and move a little more slowly (no rush to do the FC), even with the super awesome toy in your other hand. You were moving through the FC a little too quickly at the beginning when she was coming towards you and not going to the wing.When you moved a little less fast at 1:02, she committed beautifully! Then it was clear sailing after that and especially gorgeous on the last 2 reps!! Wow! She must have really thought your cues & connection were clear, because she didn’t make any noise 🙂
>>I don’t have video but she was a bit wild, I had to put away the toy and use the manners minder instead to get any consistent performance.>>
Was it similar to the beginning of this session where she was coming towards you? Or was it in the Advanced level where you had the toy on the ground? Let me know more about the session and we can game plan 🙂
Great job!
TracyWe have games coming up which emphasize the transitions into and out of collection. Stay tuned!
tracy
Good morning!
>>Won’t the moving target change their jumping mechanics?>>
yes – but in a good way 🙂 We are getting so much more power and better head position, as well as better organization because we are adding motion in so much sooner (but in a productive way). The game with the moving target is posted now, I will make the intro in the forum & email as soon as I look at everyone’s videos here 🙂
TracyGood morning!
>>(We retried the distance wind in you hair and it went well)
Awesome!!!
Looking at he wrap proofing – it overall went really well!!! I think the hardest part of the session here was figuring out the toy part of it LOL!!! At first she wasn’t into the toy, then she was really into the toy LOL! I laughed out loud when she was doing the agility with the toy in her mouth 🙂
She was definitely figuring out the discrimination here – it is SUPER hard!! One suggestion: hold her collar and say the verbal cue of what you wan a few times (wrap or tunnel) and then let her go (and you can move when you let her go). By letting her hear the verbal 3 or 4 times before you let go, she will be able to process it better when you both start to move. If you move AND start the verbal all at once, she is going to rely on handling and we want to pump up the power of the verbals.
And if you feel like you would need a third hand to do this (hold her, hold the toy, etc) then you can totally stick the toy in your pocket or under your shirt and whip it out when she is correct. This game doesn’t require precision rewards, so you can mark the correct response then dig out the toy 🙂
Great job here! Are you caught in that crazy atmospheric river?!?!?! I hope you get some dry weather ahead!
TracyGood morning!
Smiley face going well – was this his first session? He is doing a great job of putting the pieces together! YAY!!! Sure, he is still asking a question here or there but overall you are super connected, running clear lines, and using good verbals. Happy dance! He will get more and more comfy as you keep practicing this 🙂Only one suggestion from this video (and probably for everything too LOL!):
When you are rewarding him, replace “yes” with “get it” and don’t say “yes” anywhere else on course 🙂 The “yes” word accidentally becomes a reward marker (we all do it by accident) but on course, if we say ‘yes’, the dogs stop working and look at us, because they (correctly) think a reward is coming. So…. don’t say yes if posible, and remind yourself to use your other markers like “get it”.
Tunnel-wrap discriminations are off to a great start! On that first rep, you pulled away from the tunnel and he needed you to hold position more like you did on the 2nd and 3rd reps.
Nice job helping him with a little bit of handling on the wraps!
His questions were baby-dog questions, and he will get more and more comfy each time you play this.
One suggestion: Do more with his collar so he gets used to wearing it and to you holding it – let him wear it more during everyday life, and also use it to line him up in this game: take a gentle hold of it, give him a cookie, then send him into the game. That way will be happy to let you hold it and less itchy about it 🙂
Wind In Your Hair is also going well. He was looking at you a bit as he exited the wing wrap, especially when he was on your left. You can totally let him see that there is nothing in your hands LOL!
I see what you mean by him going faster when you throw the toy versus when it is placed. I think it is a combo of him wanting to look at you hands (and watch the toy get thrown) plus the ‘dead’ toy is not as exciting as the moving toy. Since we don’t want him to watch your hands and we do want the excitement of the moving toy…. do you have anyone who can throw it for you? That person can stand off to the side and throw it past the jump as soon as Huck looks forward. That can be the best of both worlds: moving toy, and not looking at you as you throw it.
Great job on these!!!
Tracy
She might end up being at 6 feet as she continues to power up, but for now we will stay at 5 feet and see what she says 🙂
Tracy
