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Hi Gayle! Welcome! This was a fabulous session with Maya!!!
You were very clear and precise with your mechanics: lined her up, said the verbal, sent her around. She was terrific and is turning beautifully around the upright. Yay!
You also did a great job of gradually moving further away. There were 2 right turn moments that were hard and she didn’t get the upright, but you handled it beautifully with a ‘nice try’ and happy reset. I think she might be a lefty – she kept offering left turns an the left turns looked easier for her. The right turns looked good too, and I am sure they will all balance out.
She was also fabulous with the toy – and I love how well she went to the to yeven after the cookies. Super!!!!
So, mission accomplished on the pre-game here! She is definitely ready for you to try the wing-tunnel discrimination.
Great job! I am excited to see more!!!
TracyHi! Lots of good stuff here!
Looking at the wing wraps – yes, having the upright closer really helped! He was very successful! Try to be very precise as you start each rep – line him up at your side with a cookie, hold his collar. say the verbals… and only then should you let him start moving. Otherwise, he is looking at you the whole time and we don’t want him looking at you 🙂
You can move this to the wing-tunnel proofing game (but definitely hold onto him so he can hear the verbals before he starts moving :))
The wind in your hair game looked great! You can throw the toy sooner: as soon as he looks at the jump, throw it. That means he will probably get it as soon as he exits the start wrap. You were waiting to throw it til he got between the uprights , at which point he was looking at you because there was nothing else to look at 🙂 So throwing nice and early will really get him driving ahead. You can try the advanced version of the game too!
You can also add more distance (15 feet, 18 feet between the wing and jump 🙂 and try the Advanced level too!
Set point – he probably needs a 4 foot distance at least, the set up on the video looked a little too tight. And that might have contributed to him not wanting to stay, but yes I agree – he doesn’t understand the stay behavior fully yet, so you can’t use it in the set point yet (or it becomes really frustrating for you both). For the set point, the stay needs to be strong enough that you can lead all the way out to the reward target and point to it, to get his head down. He was holding the stay for a few steps, which is a great start, but you can take the stay out of the set point for now, no worries!
To work on the set point, you can do it without a stay: start with your hand on his collar and send him through the grid without you moving. That way he can practice the jumping without the stay 🙂
To work on it separately, pull out the MaxPup 1 games:
And you can also work the stays with him sitting on a mat, that can help!
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
This game went really well!
She only had 2 questions:
at :02 she needed more connection
at :37 the throw was late (she was already jumping) so she hit the barThe rest looked good! You can add more direct eye contact on the connection moments, so you can see where she is looking. And as soon as she looks at the jump, you can throw the reward.
When you are in the ‘meandering’ prt of the game, be sure to keep moving when you throw so that you are not decelerating but cuing her to accelerate. And you can add more speed like you did on the very last rep!For the next session, move the wing away from the jump so it is at least 15 feet away (18 feet or 20 feet would be even better :)) And, move to the advanced level where you start very close to the wing, but the toy is already placed pretty far (15 feet) past the 2nd jump, so she leaves you in the dust 🙂
Great job!
TracyHi!
Both sessions of the wing wraps look good! He had really good distance too, and really solid commitment. Super!! He definitely likes training in the morning!Everything was very strong; he just needed a little more connection/eye contact from you for the send at :16 on the first video where he went behind you. He seemed to have no questions on the 2nd video.
For the next session, try it on a wing and with a toy – and if he is happy with that, you can definitely move this to the wing-tunnel discrimination.
Great job! Let me know how he does!
TracyHi!
>>I was really interested in your comments last night about the adolescent period. Hola somehow feels more fussy and clingy and then other times can seem conflicted about some things.>>
Yep – adolescence! It is an up-and-down ride til they get through it 🙂
>>On the set point exercise I had the jumps set 5 feet apart and the manners minder was 10 feet away. Hola is about 17-3/4″ tall so I figured that might be a good place to start. However, Hola looks like she’s throwing herself over the jumps.>>
She had good form over jump 1 for the most part, particularly in the reps where you were pointing down to the MM as that helped keep her head down. She had a lot of experimenting with her form over jump 2, and I think mainly that the MM was too close and she didn’t know how to both jump properly AND stop in time to get to the MM, thus all the interesting hind end use LOL!
So, that MM should be more like 15 feet away, and ideally you would be crouching next to it for the next session. Or, skip the MM (because they MM can definitely cause that hopping form!) and use a toy on the ground, like a big hollee roller or something that is easy to grab (but also should be 15 feet away).
Have you tried the moving target pre-game yet? That will be a game changer for her, so definitely get that going then we will add it here 🙂
I am not sure if 5 feet is the sweet spot, or 4.5 feet, but that doesn’t matter – I think the first step will be getting her comfy with focusing downward to the target then we can noodle around with the spacing.
>>Wondering if I should I move jumps a foot closer? Move MM to about 8 feet away?>>
Definitely no to both of those, the MM should be further away so she can run to it. The spacing will be clearer once we have a better targeting spot and motivator (MM or toy – I am leaning towards toy at this point).
And also, don’t worry too much about it – it is like learning to tap dance! The first rehearsal might not be great but then she will practice and get very smooth 🙂
>>I felt like the 2nd exercise went better but quit because we had done enough already and I wasn’t sure what our next steps should be until we hear what you think about both of these.>>
Both videos were the same, let me know if there was supposed to be another video instead.
Nice work!
TracyHi!
>.Have I again mentioned how wonderful training has been for us lately. Not that it wasn’t good before but we really aren’t fighting and I’m really not having to beg him to work all the time and it’s so so so nice.>
This is so great!!!!! Training through challenges is always better when we aren’t fighting or begging our canine partners 🙂 He was really into the happy tugging in this video!
And it sounds like he did well at the seminar too! Good boy!!!!!
On the video – this was a really good session for us to see what he process as the primary bits of info!
On the first part – he did well with the send to the tunnel and the send to the backside. You can definitely add more motion and less stationary cuing now. For example, you were moving at 1:20 and that was really good to get the tunnel – now add that movement for all of these – not running, necessarily, but motion instead of stopping or sending.
On the second part, we can see he definitely needs the motion to support the verbal. When you were saying “pass”, your entire body was facing the tunnel like a forward send to it (not that different than when you wanted the tunnel in the earlier parts), so he went to the tunnel. And pass is a ‘forward’ cue (as in, move forward to go do the thing) so I can see how he would end up in the tunnel.
So, to help support the verbal on the pass backside – turn your shoulders and feet so your line of motion supports the backside of the jump. Motion is your friend LOL! And he totally processes motion as a primary info cue for now (which is fine, of course!)
On the video, you asked if you were late with your verbal – nope, timing was fine, but the verbal was not overriding motion when the motion was facing the tunnel, so you need to support it with motion towards the jump. He wasn’t brain fried there – just had a couple too many failures so was getting frustrated (but chose to not deliver any tooth hugs, so that is good!)
Note how at 4:28, you turned your shoulders and he immediately knew it was not the tunnel. But your feet were stationary so he started to question if the backside was correct or not. 4:43 was a better shoulder turn for sure! But then at 5:28, your body cue was moving to the jump and the verbal said tunnel… so he took the jump.
So definitely adding handling and motion will help – and that will also help solidify the verbals, because the verbals will be attached to the physical cues that he reads well. And if he fails twice – stop the video and watch it before attempting another rep, so you can see what your body language is telling him 🙂
The only other hard part for him were the stays, and I think it was mainly because you were ot connected as you walked away (probably thinking about the handling). So he moved with yoou – probably because either the disconnection felt strange, or he didn’t think he was formally in a stay 🙂 He was much better when you watched him a bit more on the lead out, as long as you didn’t say “ready” which he was tending to mistake as a release, because he was indeed ready 🙂
Great job here! Let me know what you think! Have a blast in Tulsa!!
TracyOMG! That is too funny!!!! I think it is important to make offerings to the Zoom gods and their gremlins LOL!!!! I had to do that last night (and also reset all devices and the internet) to please the Zoom gods enough to make it work LOL!!
Fingers crossed for good weather ahead!
Tracy
Hello and welcome back! It is going to be so fun to watch you and Hola!!
>>I have a question about the Wind in Your Hair exercise. Last night you had teams start close to wing, and then had some reps where they started close to the jump. Example, start close to jump, send to wing and then meander. Then again close to the jump, when dog committed to wing take off and run, ending with both of you at the wing with you meandering to the jump. I didn’t see any of this in the video. Can you give a little more explanation and outline these steps or was this just because most of the dogs were in a tight space?>>
The variations were mainly extra credit challenges: partially because of the smaller spaces, but also to add additional challenges because all of the dogs were so fabulous (I kinda figured all of the pups would be perfect, so I had extras prepared LOL!!).
Starting close to the wing challenges the pups to drive ahead of you – whether you are meandering, or running hard. Many dogs look at the handler too much, or are distracted by motion.
Starting closer to the jump challenges the pups to resist the temptation to chase you and challenges them to find the jump instead, even when the handler is miles ahead (and moving fast). Young dogs can often switch into chase-mode when the handler is way ahead, so my goal was to begin exposing the youngsters to the whole “mom is going to be ahead and RUNNING” and asking them to still find the jump.
>>ending with both of you at the wing with you meandering to the jump.>>
I ended with that one because it was the least exciting for the pups – after all of the run run running, could they still drive ahead to find the jump, even when the handler was not running? And they were all great! Yay! We want to build massive commitment and love for jumps, and we definitely don’t want to rely on our footspeed to get these speed demons to commit to jumps 🙂
Let me know if that makes sense! Have fun!
TracyHi! Welcome back! You and Sir SB of Riverton looked great last night!
>>In the wonderfully named wind in your hair video, you are using a dead toy. Maybe it’s just an older video?>>
Do you mean in the Advanced Level, starting approx at 5:45? If so, then yes, the toy was placed (not because it was an older video :)) All the Baby Levels are done with the thrown rewards (like in class last night) because it is more of a shaping session at that stage: can the pup look at the
jump and move past the handler, while the handler is in motion?Then we change that for the Advanced level – The Advanced level places the reward for 2 reasons:
– the dogs have to turn away from it to do the wrap in order to get the reward, so it builds in a bit of a stealthy self-control element
– the placed reinforcement gets even more distance and driving ahead of the handler, similar to the Toy Races we started way back in November 🙂>> but when I have the toy in hand, Bob looks for the toy as I am trying to get him to go after wrapping. I’m sure it’s a timing thing… I need to throw the toy sooner, yes?
Because you will want to be able to run with a toy in your hand as courses get bigger, we need to teach him to not look at it. 2 ideas for you on the “Baby Level”:
– keep cuing and moving forward til he looks at the jump – then mark with a ‘get it’ and throw the reward. If you wait until he is between the uprights, then he is probably going to look at you because there is nothing else to look at
– carry two toys, one in each hand – one that is thrown and one that is just there – so he learns that just because there is a toy in your hand does not mean he should watch it. Do the same in the advanced level, when the toy is placed – still have a toy in your hand so he learns to ignore it in favor of looking at the jump.>> Is he MM something that could be used here?
I would not use the MM for him on these games – in the Baby level, it does not help with shaping him to not look at the toy. And in the advanced level, it will not produce the same speed and driving ahead like a toy would.
Let me know how he does!!
TracyGood morning!
Nice work with this game! I see what you mean about her wanting the food more than the toy. She was beginning to get the idea of focusing on the toy, especially when you put the toy down then released her then moved it. For example, at 1:07, she was GREAT about focusing downwards to the toy.But the more food was in the picture, the more she wanted to look up at you (because, starving. LOL!!) And the leaping was probably a bit of frustration along the lines of “I STARVING NO TOY NOW” haha!
If she needs treats to help her trade for the toy (highly recommend you keep doing that, think of it more as ‘clean training’ and not as a bribe LOL!), what if you had the treats off to the side on a chair, so you can run over, grab one, and trade – and then there are no treats in your hands or pockets for the jump element of the game,
But the other thing we can do is – use a food toy like a lotus ball or a treat hugger attached to a line. Because we are using this moving target to get jumping form, it doesn’t matter to me if it is a tug toy, or a food toy, or a bully stick on a rope, or a rack of lamb LOL!! (OK, maybe not rack of lamb haha
We just want her to look downwards 🙂 And using the food toy for this will make it very efficient. She has plenty of toy drive that we can use in other places, so this one is fine for a foodie toy 🙂>>I missed your intro to game #2 in the Zoom chat last night (demanding potty break) so I am excited to see the recording today & get the details. Fun class!!!>>
totally relate about those potty breaks!! I will post the video in a few minutes 🙂
TracyGood morning!
He was so fabulous in class last night!!The wrap verbal pre-game went well. I see what you mean about the right turns being easier than the left, but I am sure we will see that even out in the next couple of months. He did really well so you can definitely move to the other games now.
In this game (or similar games) you can totally use a cookie to line him up before you take his collar. He was avoiding the line up a bit because he is not a fan of being moved by his collar. He did better with the line ups when you tugged him into position, so either the tugging or the cookie will make it easy and smooth.
He is doing well with the stay too! You have been working on it, the stay is stronger now for sure!
he had trouble when you plopped the toy down – and seemed to do better when you gently placed it down. Also, for now, if you place it stationary and not while you are moving – release him then move the toy. If you placed it with it stopped and *then* moved it… he broke the stay every time. So either keep it stationary, or keep it moving – he was successful on both of those variations! And for our purposes, it is fine to do either of those in the upcoming games 🙂 And you can definitely move to the Advanced level of this game too 🙂Nice job here!!!
TracyGood morning and welcome back! He is so big now!!
The pre-game with the wrapping and verbals looks really good on the cone. He is definitely ready to see this on a wing, and then onwards to the tunnel/wing proofing game 🙂
His stay on pre-game 2 is looking really good! You have definitely been working on it! Yes, ti is harder when the toy is put on the ground but you did a lovely job of breaking it down so he can be successful. When you slowly put it down, he was able to hold the stay – good boy! You can also slowly put it down and take a breath and then release him, I think he is ready for that 🙂
When you added the jump on the 3rd video – he is holding te stay really well too! The hard part was the toy moving quickly to the ground, so he had trouble with that. Try to slowly lower it, more like what you did at 1:32 and 2:06, those reps were really strong!! And you don’t have to wait til it is all the way on the ground – as you lower it, you can release him before he breaks the stay.
You can use a cookie lure in your hand to line him up at your side, so he can sit facing the direction you want, on the side you want to lead out on. If he will eat he cookie but not go back to the toy, you can try a hand touch instead of a cookie to line him up 🙂
Great job here! Onwards to the games!
TracyHello and welcome back to you and the cutest little pointy gremlin!!! I’m so excited to see her do these games. C’mon, snow, go away, we have things to do!!!!
Tracy
Good morning and welcome back to Team Prytania!! I’m excited to see y’all tonight!
The pre-games looked good!! The wing wrapping was great, especially since you were pretty far from the wing and she nailed it! Yay!!
She is doing SUPER well with the moving target – usually it takes a couple of sessions to be able to drag it, even a little!
To get her looking at the end of the toy, you can attach a giant hollee roller or something and stuff it with fleece, so it is really visible and irresistible 🙂
And yes, you can have cookies with you – if you have trouble getting the toy back, trade for a low value cookie. And then you can also use reset cookies. The rep where she sniffed might have been partially because the game is hard, partially because she had a lot of reps by then (brain tired :))
But overall, great start! And she is ready for tonight!
Great job!
TracyPS – you’re such a fun, engaging trainer that both my puppies ran over to the computer to find you 🙂
