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Hi!
>>I know that you use two different verbals for wraps from the self-study class that I took, but I didn’t have the class where you actually talk about teaching the different wrap verbals. We may have to work on that. Her verbal for wrap is TIGHT.>>
It is easy to teach the 2 verbals! You decide on what you want them to be, then you name the behavior 🙂 so if you want a new verbal for, say, a wrap-left, you would hold her collar, in front of a wing, start saying the verbal, then let her go and step the wing so she wraps it. Then we just get consistent about using the verbals and the dogs pick them up rally nicely!
>>I do have one request. As we go forward and add verbals, PLEASE let me know about my timing of the verbal.
Will do! We start talking about timing in the games added this week!
Tracy
Hi! Congrats on your success at Regionals!!!!
The lazy game looks really strong. She did a great job of finding the jumps in both directions. You can add a little more distance, then do a couple in a row. Then build up to all 3 in a row, at which point you can add in the new games added today 🙂 She was really zipping around by the end here, so I am betting she will find it super easy to build up to 3 jumps at a distance of approx 15 feet between the jumps!
Mountain climbers: I guess the real question here is if Kyla is going to make ice cream cones as teeter rewards for her too? Ha!
She seemed SUPER confident here. You can add in walking past it as well, so she gets used to holding position while you move forward (rather than decelerating to be her the end with her). You might need cream cheese or something long lasting on the reward target so she can lick lick lick while you go past by 4 or 5 more steps.
After a couple of good sessions, you can add the tiniest bit of tip of the board here, and repeat the process starting from the very beginning. I start from the very beginning each time I add tip to the board because I want to support the dog by being close, in case she is surprised by the added movement.
Great job here!!
TracyHi! The lazy game is going really well!
I think sometimes he was putting himself into a stay after getting the cookie off the ground. He got over it pretty quickly though and did well when you moved the jump away.
He wants to watch you and the cookie bag a lot, so you can change the timing of the cookie toss: Toss it to the landing spot when he looks at the jump rather than when he is over it. That will get the reward out ahead of him before he looks back at you, which will start to smooth out the whole line. You were starting to do that on the reps after you put the cookie bag down towards the end, and he was already looking ahead better. Yay!
Well done here – you can keep adding distance between the jumps. When he can zip around all 3 in a row, you can add the new games being posted later today :) Great job!
TracyHi! These games are going really well!
He was very confident with the plank! I think that the plank being elevated will definitely help him isolate this feet and not step off the sides, even if there is a little bounce to it. He had some really good trotting reps and then would try to go too fast. Part of the too-fast moments were when he would run off then you would call him back – so if that happens, toss a treat so he is not starting this from a full run 🙂
And he was a super good boy on the teeter too, going up SLOWLY and turning around 🙂 You did a great job moving with him – when he gets to the top, take his collar so he doesn’t do the stunt man thing and jump off!
Lazy game: correct, there is no stay 🙂 We are too lazy for that LOL!!! (add yes Jamie should do this with Pudding :)) We start with a cookie toss back so you and he are both moving. If you use a toy, that is great but you need to throw the toy so he is not looking at you at all. The throw toy out on the line will get him looking forward. Yo can do this with 2 toys: throw one as the reward, then call him back with the 2nd one, trade, and start the next rep. By having all the reward from your hand you can see how he was looking at you more and more. We can tip the scales the other way with the thrown reward.
And Jamie totally ratted you out at the end – YES! After several failures, you will want to reward early 🙂
When he can zip around the little pinwheel without looking at you, you can add more and more distance between t he jumps.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyPS – Jamie’s idea of a bite sleeve is brilliant! LOL!
Hi!
She was great with the plank confidence game! You can add angles to the reward toss, so that she has to come back to the board on a slight angle. She can get on it on an angle (no need to get on perfectly straight) because it will be a good challenge for her balance and proprioception!
I think he has got the idea of the lazy game 🙂 She was especially good about finding the middle jump at a distance. YAY! The next step here is to go to the Lazy Game parts 2 and 3 which we introduced this morning – they will be posted on the site here shortly!
Looking at the mountain climber game – she was pretty confident overall, but she had questions about where the reward was, as you noted too.
When you put the reward on the target, I don’t think she knew to look there – feel free to tap it or let her see your put it there (she was busy getting a tossed treat when you did it). Since it is a placed reward, it is perfectly fine for her to see you place it 🙂Do a bunch of reps where she sees you put the reward on the target with you moving with her. And when she is happy to drive up the board without looking at you and goes directly to the food target, then you can go back to varying your position. She was starting to do this by the end of the session, but was a little hesitant on the sends. So you can add more support for now (with you going with her) and we can go back to the sending soon 🙂
>>Her competition jump height is 24″. In classes I’ve only worked her at 20″. What height do you think I should be putting the bars at for the games that use jumps? For the lazy game I have them at 10″. She’ll be 2 years old on Saturday.>>
How does she do at 20” in class, in terms of confidence, mechanics, etc? 24” is a REALLY hard jump height so there is no need to rush to get to it. So for the games, you can go to 12” for the lazy game 🙂 And I bet the handling games can be done at 12 to start, then we will gradually start to move them up if she continues to be super confident 🙂
Great job here!
TracyHi!
I love this post! So much great stuff happening, but these 2 things really stuck out:>>Once I reflect on it, I feel by writing down the positive things I have accomplished is in a way praising myself and enjoying the moments>>
That is great. And a wonderful introspective way to reflect on your successes – and a written record to look back on!!!
>>I did a big Thank you he has been quite a fun journey. I feel I need bonus points for not “yeah butting”>>
Yessss! 10 million bonus points for you, for squashing that “yeah but” inner critic! That’s a huge win!
Tracy
Hi!
I add the verbal to the backside wrap when I am 90% sure the pup will commit to the wrap as I am moving. And when adding it, you can start saying it just before you begin the handling cue.
Tracy
Hi!
The send to the wings are looking great – his commitment seems very strong! Yay! Nice job with your verbals, and also with your connection (especially when he exited the tunnel and you were sending to the next wing). And he also had no trouble when you added the center wing and did the Front Cross – nice connection from you there too!!!
Since this went so well, you can add more distance between the wings and the tunnel, so there is more running from you 🙂 And with more running, remember to stay connected like you were here, it was great! Since things will be moving faster, you can do this with the toy in your pocket so you don’t end up switching it from hand to hand: he is really fast so you won’t have time for that.
Great job on these!!! New games being posted later today :)
Tracy
He caught on really quickly that if he keeps taking the jumps, you will keep throwing the treat LOL!! Good boy! You can keep moving after you toss the treat, so see if he can find the jump from behind you, especially when you toss for the middle jump.
The added distance was no problem at all for him, so keep adding more distance. And since he easily did a couple in a row, you can switch to a toy for this too. We build on this with the new games that will be posted today 🙂
Great job!
TracyHi!
He did really well with the plank here! Yes there was a tip but it was really minimal and I don’t think he cared at all. He was also really happy to turn around on it – not so easy now that he is fully grown! He did better with slow hand movement on that than when you did it really fast.
You can add more of your motion on this back and forth game now, walking fast and also tossing the cookies on a slight angle so he has to line himself up to get back on
Nice work!
TracyGood morning!
>>Stronger on one side than the other. was it my body position or her preference?>>
Yes! She definitely did well on one side over the other… but it was not a side preference for her or body position from you: it was motion (or lack thereof).
Looking at the reps:
Rep 1 and 4 – you were stationary near the visual obstruction when she exited the tunnel, so she came to you.Rep 2 and 5 – you did it as a send so she had a question but went back out when you showed the motion of the send.
Rep 3 at :45 – you had motion the whole time, parallel to her line, and she nailed it. Yay!
Rep 6 – she saw motion the whole time and she was great on her line, until the end where you stopped moving in the same spot as reps 1 and 4, so she came off the line.
Great info from Roulez! Staying in motion is the key, using parallel line motion to get her on the layering line. That is great because when layering on course, you will want to stay in motion anyway (it is not a send, you will be hustling to the next part of the course).
So on the sequence, send her into the tunnel then be moving up the line to the 3 and 4 jumps while staying parallel to her (further and further away) and I bet she gets it perfectly :) Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
How did you feel about this session, in terms of motivation (his and yours too LOL!) I really liked it 🙂 The pool might be a happy-making factor here!At the beginning:
Holy wow! I am super happy with his speed and propulsion out on the lines here – especially because there is not a lot of handler motion and he loves chasing you 🙂
You can have more handler motion on the lateral line, parallel to his path. You don’t need to send from the stationary position – that can support the line and also allow you to add more distance.
For example, on the 2nd sequence, you can go down closer to the tunnel so it is less of a send from ahead to the jump and more of a parallel line path for you (the motion will support his line here even at a big distance.
He gave us some great info here as well, about what helped him find the commitment and what did not help him:
“Go jump” is important to him, especially the GO part 🙂 “Jump” alone doesn’t do it, he needs the Go. He got the line every single time when you had the GO:
Even at 1:35 when you did it as a send without motion, the “go jump” verbal got it done nicely!!
And at 2:23 when you were late but said “go jump” he wen back out to get it – good boy!!!At 3:00 you said jump – no jump from him. But on the next rep – you said “go” before the jump cue and he worked beautifully!
So for the magical GO word, start saying it *before* he enters the tunnel, and keep saying it til he locks onto the next line. It will sound more like “Tunnel Tunnel GO GO GO GO Jump” so he is hearing it the entire time and never needs to look at you 🙂
And to help solidify it, you can throw the toy more out on the line or maybe Carrie can be a frizzy thrower if you think that would be effective – she could do a roller as the reward if he will chase it.
On the wrap on the #4 jump to get back into the layered line:
Wrapping towards you then back into the layer was hard – you can try a get out cue there, or a GO jump cue. He seems to like the directional and the high energy and responds better to it than he does to the obstacle name.>>
>>I realized for the flip away at 4 on the second wrap that I don’t really have a word for it. Because it’s more of a slice than a wrap, I wasn’t sure if my dig dig would be appropriate… but also this really isn’t a skill I’ve put work into.>>Is dig dig your turn to the left? If so, then yes, it is appropriate. I use a switch verbal, which is specific to the context of turn away from me and then ignore my physical cues (but listen for verbals), because you are going to layer LOL! And the physical cue that goes with the ‘switch’ is basically a tandem turn from a distance.
Here are some visuals if you want to play around with it:
I also was really excited about how he was keen and PUSHY on the start lines, as you accurately quoted as “let’s go bitch”. I love that!
Great job here! Let me know how it felt in the moment!
TracyGood morning!
>>Enzo is back in the saddle; just a wound on this foot that needed to heal. Can’t imagine how he got it — stepped on a sharp rock or stick, maybe.>>
Whew! That is a relief. Thanks for letting me know, I was worried that it was a bigger injury. Very glad it is healed up!!
>>I wanted it to be a touch harder, so I used a wingless jump as the “out jump”.>>
Ah, clever twist on it for those who do a lot of AKC – that wingless will be placed in hard spots for sure!!! Love it!
Out of curiosity, how did the other dogs do? I am interested in hearing about any struggles they had or if it was too easy.
On Enzo’s video: One thing to add is to tell him how to exit the tunnel before he goes in so there are no questions. You were tending to give the next cue as he exited, which will work on a simpler line but will be late on a more challenging line. You can give him the exit cue (such as Go Jump) before he even enters the tunnel in a big layering moment.
Layering involves a lot of extension and a course trend is collection after the layering, so we need stronger cues to get the collection for dogs that love to extend:
For example, at :17 to get a better FC wrap without motion (because there is not a lot of handler motion there but there is a big tasty tunnel out ahead), you can drop in your hand cues in front of him and make a BIG eye contact before he passes you and rotate your feet as soon as he passes you. A ‘switch’ to the left worked nicely too and is a better line there.
He had no real issues driving back to the tunnel by layering in the other direction 🙂
2nd sequence: This went well too.
He should be seeing the out cues for the jump past the tunnel before liftoff for the previous jump – your timing was closer to the that at 1:07, which is definitely nice and early – you can experiment with how early you can give the out cues. A stride before takeoff? 2 strides before takeoff? That way he goes out to the layer and you can move to your next position sooner.Compare the timing at 1:07 to the timing at 1:33 where the cues started as he was landing so he had questions (he was jumping looking at the tunnel because there was no other info. And for the outside arm, you can use it to point to the obstacle not just high up because it helps turn your shoulders to it as well. (And he really benefits from the big obvious upper body cue there!)
I liked your timing of the “go on” at 1:56, nice and early, so he read the layering really well. The line of motion supported the jump but a “go on” might be tricky with a tunnel right there 🙂
>>I do notice that I use “OUT”, “GET OUT”, “GO”, “GO JUMP” and “GO ON”.
>> My guess is he is reading the energy of the cue and not actually the verbal? And also the line of motion. But yes, try to pick what you want to use and be consistent so he doesn’t have questions (and so he doesn’t need to also rely on physical cues).
>>The last sequence had some bar-dropping issues.>>
That is usually a sign that the challenge is ever-so-slightly uncomfortable. Could be that your arm was getting higher and the verbals were less clear? It is hard for the dogs to process all the things happening here: verbals, line at a distance, visual blocker (I loved your creativity LOL!) and the extension required without as much handler motion. So he was processing the correct line which took a lot of bandwidth but the motor skills/jumping organization was not as well-processed. No worries, the jumping skills will come back when he gets more comfortable with the layering skills.
When the DW was in the sequence, you can see why we start without it LOL!!! It is so much harder with the DW there.
I think you were relying on verbal cues alone there, but he needs the physical cues to support them too, especially with in terms of motion changes and big upper body movement.
There was too much failure here because the visual of the dog walk without a lot of handler help takes up a lot of processing bandwidth even for the experienced dogs – and the frustration of failure takes of even more bandwidth so it become a bit of a cycle when it is too hard. He was slowing down to try to get it, but still had trouble. So, breaking it down and less failure will really help.
So with that in mind, 2 suggestions to make this easier:
– When the dog walk is in place, don’t layer: get in there and handle the lines. I think the wraps and switches need more upper body cues, especially the switches (I use both hands and my shoulders on that when I am working it, especially at a distance and with layering.– And, you can break the skill down: rather than the full dog walk, take a low table and a plank (like a puppy training setup) and put that in the middle where the DW would be – and work the skill with that smaller setup there. That should take up less mental bandwidth and get a lot more success 🙂
You can also do these with Casper, especially with the visual barrier and the table-plank setup! It is a good time to begin teaching him to layer, if you haven’t done so already.
>>(by the way, for some reason the “CAMP 2023 Package 2 Overview” video had the visual and aural output just ever so slightly out-of-sync. )>>
Ugh, sorry about that! I recorded it different because I was on the road at that time, and that appeared to have created the lag. I will re-do it when I get back to civilization next week 🙂
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
