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Good morning!
>> totally wish I lived closer! Part of the slow sit is I was using a cookie before and I’ve taken it away. But, the Cato board helped a lot!>>
yes, that would make it harder for sure! Where was the cookie located? It helps the dogs to have a reward station so they can better predict reinforcement (agility reinforcement is really pretty unpredictable, so we do our best to help the dogs out).
>>It’s supposed to rain again starting Sunday for a few days. So, it’ll likely be a week before I can do much. Should I move on to the next exercise to get it in? I’ll add a wing to this and the other set ups for speed after that.>>
Wow, that is crazy weather. Yes, move on to the next one. And if you don’t get it in before the end of March, no worries, get it in when you can and I will happily look at it 🙂
>>We are working on a start line routine which is why I added the leash. But, she struggles to sit if she’s tired in general and isn’t the fastest to sit to begin with. Plus, when I took the cookie out of the picture she apparently didn’t know sit in this context. Good to know!>>
Yep, all normal. Good to practice the start line!!! I also am fine with letting my dogs choose their position in the moment – I just get us to both stop moving, take the leash off, ask them to stay, and I lead out. Elektra always chooses the sit, Contraband chooses a sit or a stand sometimes depending on whatever he is feeling internally, and Hot Sauce always chooses the stand. They all maintain fabulous stays, so everyone is happy. It is something to consider in your training, so there is no pressure to do a specific position (because really, we don’t care what the position is as long as they stay and as long as they are balanced in their jumping). A down is my least favorite position for the start, but if they need to do it in order to regulate arousal, then it is fine and I start them further from the first jump.
>>I am doing UKI in April. Just jumpers and speedstakes NFC. Can I actually bring in a Cato board? I think I’ll work on the tug, tug, tug sit game for her.>>
Yes, you can bring in the Cato Board NFC – just be sure to yell NFC to the judge 🙂 It is also UKI-legal to have someone else bring the Cato Board in for you, so you can focus on her 🙂
Have fun! Stay dry!
TracyHi!
He did well with the Wind In Your Hair game! The line ups looked great and he was almost perfect, even when you were running and way ahead. Really super!!!
>>He left me at the end – should I have just ended the session instead of continuing on? Not sure if he had had enough, just being an adolescent,>>
I don’t think it was an adolescent moment, I think the session was too long at almost 5.5 minutes. I remind myself that if a jumpers run is 30 seconds, then a 5 minutes if the equivalent of 10 jumpers runs in a row. LORDY! He trains like my whippet and whippet mixes train: they are great then when we do it another zillion times, they are like “why are we doing this again, human?” LOL!
Bearing in mind that he is running and you are not 🙂 try to limit the reps and also setting a timer to 2 or 2.5 minutes is perfect. It is fatiguing and also a lot of repetition so even though he was successful and got lots of reinforcement, I think the session was simply too long. He started to check out a little after 3 minutes (the equivalent of 6 jumpers runs LOL! ). He called for a taxi at 4:28 LOL! Yes, he as saying he was done so it is fine to be done, no need to do one more. And setting the timer to have shorter sessions will help – the sessions where he is not running can be more in the 5 minute range, probably, but the running sessions should be shorter .
Speaking of setting a timer… even if the session is a poopy one 🙂 you can still finish in the 3 or 4 minute range – don’t obsess on the thing that is going wrong (which is very important with adolescent dogs and things go wrong all the time with teenagers LOL!) even if you are doing a lot of reinforcement.
About the stay – work it away from the jumps for now. Have him line up facing the MM, doing a few stays on the flat. That MM is really challenging as a distraction! He was pretty successful for the first 3 minutes but then things started to go awry more. You said “one more” at 3:32 but then there were 4 more minutes LOL! My guess is that in the moment, you don’t realize what the session length is so a timer will be the easiest way to keep track of it. After the one more moment, he had a lot of errors and at 7:00-ish he had stopped sitting easily. So.. timer! 3 minutes, maximum, and be finished no matter if the last rep was good or not 🙂
For the set point practice, you don’t need to lead out. You can gently hold him, trigger the MM, then send him through it. It will have the same value for teaching him form, and maybe even more value because he won’t look up at you standing, he will be looking downwards to the MM. His jumping form is going well, so the next area of jumping focus will be to help him keep his head even more down (we will eventually add the moving target too!)
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
Were your ears burning? I was just talking about you and Muso because a friend is on a list for a puppy that is going to be from Muso’s dad Smidgen and Grifter’s sister. So I was mentioned how FABULOUS Muso is and how you are doing a great job 🙂
Speaking of great job and fabulous – nice sessions here!!! Some ideas for you along with lots of telling you it was great:
Wrap – good first reps, good first tunnel reps, then hard to get the wrap back. Good to know!!! And pretty normal, this was a good session – this game is hard AF and she had a lot of success! The tunnel sends add a lot of stimulations, so in many ways this is an arousal management game as well.
After a tunnel rep or two, help her with a little enhancement of the gap by putting your toy in the gap to give a little visual aid – do this before she fails, to set up success. I mean, she can still find the tunnel if she wants 🙂
And then when you do the mini sequence, on the very first wrap after the tunnel, help her out in the same way for now. You will easily be able to fade that help but it will help her find the wrap in the higher state of arousal induced by the tunnel.At the very end, she was barking and backing up – probably a few too many reps in the session, she was brain tired (she can actually do fewer reps in adolescence than she could do as a baby pup). So remember to limit reps, and make the starts clear by stepping forward with your leg – your dog-side leg was back there, so she was unsure of whether she should start or not (she went to the cone as soon as you stepped to it).
Lazy game 1 – Super nice!!! This was the advanced level because the toy was place out past the jump with the holder 🙂 She did well tearing her eyes off the toy holder (this is also a great foundation game for flyball :)) You can also have her do hand touches or tricks so you don’t have to hold onto her – reward each trick or hand touch with a treat so she can build value for not looking at the toy on the line til it is time to do so 🙂
Lazy game 2: Looking good here too! I think she likes the speed games a whole lot!!!!
Nice adjustment to give her stronger connection around the wing as you run – on the 2nd rep, there was no strong connection so she ended up on the other side of you – she was not wrong, so if that happens just go with it, reward, then try again with stronger connection. The reps after that were all perfect.One note about having a toy holder person – we don’t want to ‘catch’ Muso on the toy because it wrenches her neck. So the toy holder person can be moving and then as soon as Muso is tarting her grab, the holder should let go of the toy so Muso runs through it (no wrenching of the neck or spine). Then it is a great retrieve opportunity too! (And yes, let her run through the toy in flyball too so there is no wrenching 🙂 I have video if you want to see what it looks like in the flyball version).
Since these games look fabulous, you can add more distance and keep varying your position: sometimes start near the wing, sometimes halfway between the wing and the jump, sometimes at the jump with a MASSIVE send to the wing, so that you are miles ahead – can she still find the jump or will she revert to chase da momma?
Muso definitely seems to like the smiley face games too 🙂 Wheeee! Very nice! Great job with your connection and your verbals. Her commitment is looking strong. She is having a little trouble turning in the dirt, it looks deep, so don’t do a ton of reps in a row because she will fatigue (bearing in mind that she is sprinting sand you are not LOL!!) The wraps and tunnel sends looked good, and the race tracks looked good. Really strong! So on the next smily face game… add more of your running. Drive in to the tunnel more, send to the wings and rotate sooner, etc. Basically, handle it really aggressively as if you are trying to wing the Smiley Face National Championships 🙂 because it will help you learn the fast aggressive connected handle she will like, and it will help her handle all the excitement of the speeeeeeeeeeed!
Great job on these!!!!!!
TracyHi!
This was a fabulous, systematic session. Loved it! You worked through each step and looks like she had no questions at all. The flatwork looked great. And the transfer to the jump looked great too. Yay! Sit tight on this one now, we will add it to the jumping games soon 🙂
TracyHi!
I’m glad class is back too! And it is so fun to see you and Debbie in the live class drinking wine and having fun 🙂
Fingers crossed for good weather ahead!!!
TracyHi!
He is definitely doing better with the stay! When you were rewarding quickly, he did really well! I think for now, it is best to do the ‘catch’ only and not the “get it” where he moves forward, to help him hold position.Right now you can only go about 2 steps away, so I think adding a mat for him to stay on will really help! That will give him a chance to really solidify the stay, then we can fade the mat 🙂 You can use a bath mat with rubber backing so it doesn’t slip out from under him.
And yes, it takes time to build up, so keep mixing in short sessions each day to help him out 🙂
Nice work!!
TracyHi!
Figuring out the reinforcement strategy is always the hardest thing with baby dogs! And we can use this setup as a framework for that: she DEFINITELY liked going fast LOL!!! And she had zero questions about wrapping the wing. Super!!
I liked her head position and your timing better when you threw the toy, but she didn’t like the toy as much so she wins LOL!! The cookie toss was slower as you mentioned, but she likes it better and because you were predictable with your placement, she started looking forward a whole lot more by the end. Yay! So we can keep going with cookies until she loves the toy or lotus ball in this scenario.
You can also move to the advanced level, and have the manner minder already place out there which will take out the issue of what to throw 🙂 And by doing that, you can add more motion – you started running at the end which was no problem for her. So you can now keep running but change your position: either start right close to the wing and wait til she is almost done wrapping before you run so she drives way ahead of you, or start near the jump and send way away to the wing, then take off running so she is behind you. Sometimes dogs struggle when we are way ahead and they go into chase mode by accident and skip the jump, so getting way ahead is great! And having the manners minder out there (or a toy on the ground) will keep her looking forward and also challenge her impulse control to ignore it to go do the wing wrap.
Great job! Keep me posted on how she does on the next steps!
TracyHi!
You are both doing well with the verbals!!! And it is perfectly fine to take a moment to remember which verbal goes which direction – they are new for you, so better to take that heartbeat to remember. It gets easier LOL!
He really loves flying out to the wing – that is AWESOME!! Getting massive commitment with the small dogs is soooo important and he is doing it without even needing the step to the wing. And he is just as fast going to the wing as he is coming back from it – that is hard to achieve that balance and he was perfect.
>>He did so much better this time after another session on the wing wrap verbals
Yes! The wing wrap game warm up definitely refreshed the value, plus he had already seen this setup so he was more prepared for it LOL!
>>Notice in earlier video he was all about grabbing that toy – in this video he won’t touch it – wants me to throw it.>>
This is probably because the arousal level shifts: the wrap game is easier, so he is happier to tug. The discrimination game is a lot harder, so he needs more motion in the reinforcement to clear out his brain because he is working really hard.
To start the game, take a gentle hold of him, so you can start the verbal then let go then step to the wing or tunnel. When you started from a standstill at the very beginning, he didn’t quite realize that the game was ON so it took a moment to get moving. He was fine without the hold later on, but the first rep can be done with the gentle hold so he is ready to start.
He had one little question at 1:07 – he was correct, you were right to reward. When the dog hears the tunnel verbal, he should go to whatever tunnel he is looking towards… and in that moment, he was looking at the tunnel entry behind you LOL!! If you play it in slow motion you will see that. I have a personal rule of always knowing where the dog is looking before saying “tunnel” because my dogs keep me VERY honest and will take the tunnel they are looking towards LOL!
The rest looked awesome, including when you changed sides. Yes, he ended the toy thrown but his retrieve was fabulous!
At the very end, you did 2 tunnels in a row – the first one was after the wing wrap, a normal tunnel send. When he exited the tunnel you sent him back into the entry – that can be a tunnel threadle verbal and arm, because he has to turn away from you for that one.
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
I can’t believe how crazy your weather is!!! !It will normalize soon, right?!?!?!
>>so I’m playing with arousal manipulation
There was a lot of great stuff for this sprinkled throughout the session.
I loved the rehearsals with the leash here. That might have contributed to the slower sits? The Cato Board was smart to help her out. The leash rehearsals are so important for future trialing!!!
The sequence work looked fabulous. She had zero questions on the tunnels, zero questions on the backside slice, and only one question on the circle wrap. She had a crazy wrap jumping effort at 2:18, watch it in slow motion – kind of like half her brain was saying wrap (she was indeed collecting) but the other half of her brain was on auto pilot from the slices (watch her head turn and look at the slice line). My guess is that she was a little on autopilot and simply surprised. Bar down, no worries, she was perfect at 2:32 with the circle wrap. So mix things up more so she doesn’t assume slice, by adding the circle wrap in sooner during the session.
Next step with this setup, as you continue working the start jump around the clock is to treat is as mid-course because that is where we will see this challenge – and she is ready for it to be put in context. So to treat it like it is mid-course, you can leave her in her stay and don’t lead out much past the first jump. Release then move into it 🙂 so you are moving the whole time. You can total handle (like a little shoulder turn towards the backside) because the added motion will add significant challenge . And if you want to really get running, you can or replace the stay with a wrap of a start wing before that first jump. Fun!
10 tunnel game looked awesome!!!
Nice snuffle matting 🙂 to help her with her ‘resilience flex’ of return to baseline. She was exited, engaged…. But never got overstimulated or into the hot zone where she struggled with arousal. YAY! So for giggles to keep working on this… do the 10 tunnels then line her up for the sequence 🙂 Doing the 10 tunnels, putting her on leash then lining up in front of a jump is great for trial prep!!!!Great job! She is looking great! Wish you lived closer, I’d drag you to some UKI trials so we can do some NFCing together!!
Tracy
Good morning!
Great job in class on Wednesday!!!The Wind In Your Hair game looks great! As you mentioned, she only had one question – handling induced 🙂 At :14 you were close to the jump, gave the wrap cue and the first motion was actually towards the jump! Watch it in slow motion and you’ll see it clearly. So she was being very good!!
Remember that you can step to the start wing to help her understand which wing you want wrapped and that will eliminate that question.
The next step is to exaggerate things a bit: you can add more distance and either start very close to the wing so she drives waaaaay ahead (this can also be done for the Advanced level). Or, you can start very close to the jump and send to the wing then rub hard past the jump – and see if she can still find the jump with you miles ahead.
Looking at the wrap proofing, which is definitely the hardest game of week 1:
The variations went really well! You could hear her grunting because it was so hard!
On the other side later in the video, she had a little extra tunnel action but overall did really well! Yes, you can be quicker with the reset cookie but you were fine here! We can all be quicker with the reinforcement of course, but she seemed happy with the pace here 🙂She was a little surprised when you added the 2nd wing (more like the Smiley face game) because you didn’t really handle it. So be sure to show clear handling because these are handling games once you get into the smiley face (not verbalsl games):
Do a post turn to the tunnel, then accelerate. Try not to do a rotation or spin on the tunnel entry because that cues a turn on the tunnel exit which we don’t want here. Her question wasn’t that the wing was too far away, it was that you were cuing a turn on the tunnel exit so she was turning 😀Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyThat’s no longer legal in NAFA. They revamped their measuring rules. So, shaving? Yes! Crouching? Nope.
