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Hi!
Sounds like a really busy weekend!!!>I’m not sure why it was all going so horribly wrong.>
It didn’t go horribly wrong! This session went well and I think it shows us a bit of a a side preference: moving to his right seemed easier than moving to his left. Good to know! That is where his questions were.
At the beginning, he did really well pushing away into the first gap (to his right), but had trouble coming in to the 2nd gap (to his left). I think he needed foot rotation and a more dramatic cue to understand to come into the 2nd gap. He was reading motion of you moving forward so didn’t read the upper body/arm dipping back.
At 1:48 you had a slight rotation in your footwork which made a huge difference to help him come into t he gap to his left. So definitely keep using the foot rotation to help him out.
Pulling into the gap on the other side needed a little bit of drama at first (also to his left!) but he got it when you added the drama in the handling 🙂 Coming into the 2nd gap was much easier – to his right.
This is useful info! For this game, you can help him a lot when he has to move to his left. And when teaching new and/or complex skills, work on having him turn to his right first so it is easier to learn. Then it will also be easier to transfer to the left turn side.
Thanks for the course – I love it!!! Were the dogs going into the tunnel after 13? I would use a brake arm (opposite arm joining dog side arm) to get collection there.
Great job!
Tracy
Good morning!
>I’m seeing a pattern I need to work with. The weekends after conformation, she’s so hand focused and grabbing at treats. >
That is interesting! Is she asked to focus on the bait hand in conformation? You can add a marker for the treat delivery there so help her understand when to grab the treat and how to otherwise ignore it 🙂 Or, do you find she is extra grabby on the Monday or Tuesday after a weekend of conformation? That might indicate she is brain-tired from the weekend and might need either easier work or more reset/recovery, or both 🙂
>I need to slow down and maybe go back to the attention game before we train.>
Yes – that pattern game is great for a mental warm up before training!
The blind crosses went really well!
> I’m not 100 percent certain I’m doing the blind cross right.>
You totally did them right 🙂 Turning away on a wing is probably weird-feeling, but you were spot on!
And the best reps were when you exited the blind with the toy visible across your body (like at :17 and :44). That created amazing connection and she knew exactly where to be 🙂
Speaking of connection – there was one little blooper at :23 which was a disconnection on the send: you were looking ahead before she saw the wing so she saw your back and not a clear connection. It looks like a blind cross cue, so she switched sides, then said “oh! My toy!” 😂 But all of your connections on the other reps were great!>I was able to send her to the tunnel and over the jump once with a pre placed reward but the distraction was too high.>
Was she going past the jump and heading straight to the reward? If so, you can use an empty target that the reward eventually gets thrown to after she commits to it.
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
>Did we not have a decel exercise where we divided the space between jumps (or tunnel to jump) into thirds and we were supposed to do our decel transition in the second section of the thirds?>
Yes – the original game was a handler game, for timing deceleration and rotation on wrap cues. Handler deceleration was supposed to start when the dog was at the jump (or tunnel exit) before the wrap.
>So now we run up to the jump and stand still…to me that doesn’t seem like handler decel?>
Also yes – standing still is the ultimate and most dramatic form of decel 🙂
This decel game is a dog training game: can the dog recognize decel as a really important cue and set up collection? The reasoning behind it is that if the dog doesn’t understand decel which is usually the first thing they see as part of a tight turn cue, then the turns will be wide. We don’t want to rely on verbals and hands and rotation – we want decel to be a strong part of the cue.
Looking at the video:
This went well!
>He did it better on the one side than the other but could be my mechanics.> That looked like we were seeing a side preference. We could see it on the stand still moments and also on the sends:
Brioche did a good job when you were standing still on the lead out to the right turns – he turned but didn’t add much collection before takeoff. But he didn’t launch to takeoff in extension, and that is good! He had an easier time adding collection before takeoff on the left turns! Super nice!
This held true both when you were standing still and releasing from the stay, and when you added the tunnel & jump-tunnel before it. The left turns (dog on right) were stronger in terms of how he set up before takeoff.
For example, at 3:57 & 4:36, he was just slightly wider over the bar and turned when landing. Compare to 2:34 and 3:30, for example, where you can see him setting up the tight turn to his left on the takeoff side.
Sends are looking good too! It is basically a one-step send to the jump like you did here.
When he had a harder time starting at 5:40, you were not as connected on the send but more importantly: the cue was to the right turn (his harder side). He was able to get it after a couple of reps – but notice how much easier the left turn reps were. And your mechanics were a little stronger on that side too.
So what does it all mean? I think his is doing well understanding decel – yay!! And seeing the slight side preference is very useful info. It means that when you are teaching him a new or complex skill, do it with him turning to his left first. That will make it a lot easier to learn! Then it will also be easier when he transfers the skill to the right turns too.
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
He did really well with the ball retrieves here! We can use his ball love to build up his retrieving love 🙂 For some dogs, the best way to get the retrieve is to use a toy they love and the reward is getting that toy back: in this case, he seemed to really love the ball (yay!) so you can play with it while it is in his mouth when he brings it back for 10 seconds or more… then throw it again. Using a food reward was good, but he does love his food (he was cracking me up when he was poking you to get the treat out faster haha) but you can also reward with play or a 2nd toy.
Getting back to tugging with what he retrieves: I have found this to be a great way to get a retrieve to hand until I cue the ‘drop it’. The baby whippet you see in some of the demo videos will now bring anything back and shove it in my hand until I ask for it back – and whippets are definitely not natural retrievers LOL! Since Rusty loved the ball and was chomping on it happily, we can build from that!
In order to do that safely without your hands getting chomped by accident (ouch!) a couple of ideas for you:
– You can use a really big ball so you can put a hand on each side of it when it is in his mouth, to play some tug.
– I wear a glove when tugging with a ball close to the dog’s mouth. It is a heavy gardening glove (I think?) that I got at Tractor Supply a while back. It allows me to tug near the dog’s mouth without getting hurt if the dog accidentally touches teeth to my flesh. I only wear it on one hand, but both hands are of course a possibility!
– You can get a bigger toy made out of tennis ball material (dogs love that material for some reason). I have used the big stick toys made by the Kong company, for example: the same exact materials and feel as a tennis ball but in a stick shape! It is big enough to tug with as a reward when he brings it back, and very ball like in feel and movement.>One thing I did learn for sure is that turning to his left is his preferred side!>
This is very useful information, for when you start teaching really complex skills and handling. When introducing really hard things, I teach it to the dog’s preferred direction first. They learn it a lot faster, then it is pretty easy to transfer to the harder side.
Great job here!
Tracy
Hi!
>I have gone back and worked on the release word and this is already making a huge difference>
Fantastic!!
Find my face will use a toy- currently he only works for two sorts of treats both high value.>
You can expand his treat preferences by pairing them with the toy: do something fun like a tunnel or wing wrap. Then give him a treat. Then give him the toy. Eating the treat is the actual work in this setup and it gets rewarded with the toy 🙂
>remote reinforcement no treats on me but didnt think about hand in pocket although toys out rank food hugely. >
Toys might be what he likes better, but all dogs know what hand-in-pocket means 😂 so we definitely want him to know there is nothing in your pocket.
>Need to do some more work on pattern games . It wasnt so much we were doing anything except walking or playing or tolieting at agility, now I get lunging towards ring when dogs running before he didnt pay much attention. >
Yes – add more distance, bring super high value food when near the rings, and get him really good at pattern games at home so you can play them at agility trials.
>But sudden big changes in how he behaves- typical adolscent loss focus and brain goes into overdrive.>
Adolescence is a hard time for dogs but that is where all of the tools come in – the pattern games will be your biggest help.
He seemed to be happy to do the ball retrieves! Fun! It was hard to see but he also was really focused on the ball.
>What size ball do you use for smaller dogs (not tiny like In Synch) he is probably going to be 390 at shoulder so terrier size. >
I buy smaller balls (usually from the Kong company) at pet supply stores. But be super careful that the smaller balls are not available for the big dogs – they could swallow them! If there is a possibility that the bigger dogs will get to the smaller balls, you can also use low-compression tennis balls. They are full-sized balls but much easier to carry. I get them on Amazon.
Nice work here!
Tracy
Good morning!
Wow, you are chuck-it throwing rockstar, I am very impressed with how far you get it to go! My dogs all just pulled out of the driveway to come live with you LOL!!
He is really looking so grown up and gorgeous! I totally agree, he seemed to really enjoy this game but also didn’t lose his head or body to overarousal – happily he decelerated nicely to get the ball. I think his decel was better when you held him until it landed (he was a little heavier on his front end when you let him rip to it as you threw it), so keep holding him because we do like the decel!
Also it was great that you had him bring it to your hand and played. There were no shenanigans about staying just out of reach with it, or throwing it at you and backing up for you to throw again haha
I also tug on the balls while the dog is holding it but I do wear a glove when I do that, so I don’t get any fingers chomped by accident 🙂
Speaking of chomping: I notice that he was chomp chomp chomping the ball – this could be a nice fun decompression! Those repeated mouth movements are associated with decompressions, so I am always noting where the dogs will naturally do that. Since he was liking the chomp here, have you ever tried a bottle tug toy with him? Very good for chomping 🙂 It is a fleece (or fur) sleeve with a small plastic water bottle in it, and the sleeve is usually on a bungee. It is GREAT for tugging and chomping!
Great job here!
Tracy
Hi! I agree, this went very well! Rusty does like the MM but he was also very good about following the cues and not just running to the MM 🙂
Since this went well, we can take it all to the next level 🙂
To show Rusty the difference between the cues, we will add starting him in the same spot for each cue – the spot where you started him is perfect for both the serp and the threadles.
For the serp, you can release when you are further across the bar (center of the bar), like you did at :45 for example, so he doesn’t see the release come with you in the same position as he would on the threadle cue. And you can keep releasing with his name or with your regular release cue.
For the threadle, you can be just outside the edge of the entry upright to release him. And release him with the threadle cue, so he doesn’t hear his name first as that might indicate the era.
That will add some strong challenge to help him understand the difference between the 2 cues. Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
He was pretty perfect here! Offered the wing right away, and then totally understood the turn and burn game using the wing. Yay! I really appreciate how he is being sure to NOT touch the wing or the feet – wrapping as tightly as possible without hitting it. The will be great in the future when we are ding tight turns with bars up!
You can add in your wrap verbal here, and also use the wings for any of the rocking horse games.
>Staying on task outside is still a work in progress.
>He looked great here. Do you find that his attention wanders? There are a lot of distracting outside things of course 🙂 and also it is getting hot – and the temperature can actually be a pretty big distraction for a pup who was not even born yet last summer 🙂 You can use super short sessions, pattern games, and really high value rewards that he only gets outside to see if that helps!
Great job 🙂
Tracy
Good morning!
The title card is back! Yay! So cute 🙂
The turn aways looked great! You were precise with your lineup at your side, which really helped her (she might have needed a release word on the 2nd side, she might have thought she was in a stay!). And you were super clear with your turn away cues: she knew exactly where to go 🙂 Super!!!! Since this went so well, you can add more distance between the barrels to add challenge! And you can also add in the advanced level, where your feet keep facing the barrel (tandem turn).
The get outs also went really well! I am very impressed by the reps where you did NOT want her to take the jump so she didn’t even though the jump was right there. SUPER!! And of course she went to the jump really well on cue too.
She is ready for next steps here too! The main one is to add distance – you can move the barrel away from the jump by a couple of feet. And to avoid you getting to close to the jump, you can draw a line in the dirt from the barrel and parallel to the bar. That is your line of motion – and you can cue the get out without crossing the line towards the jump. Definitely a good challenge! You might find using the opposite arm is easier for the get out when you are further away, but it is something to play with and see what feels best.
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
Once again, his decel game looked fabulous! It is unusual for a young dog to do so well with this!
I am tickled by how well he is reading the decel cues and turning, without losing speed on the line into the turn. You were actually a tiny bit early on some of the decel cues by starting a before he was really out of the tunnel… but it didn’t matter, he still blasted into the collection and turned really well. And he easily went back to the extension lines when cued. SUPER! The right turns seemed a little harder but I think it was just the angle of the tunnel setting up the line a little differently – he was still quite brilliant. Happy dance!!!!
The targeting on the end of the teeter is going well too! I think the target might have actually been a shade too close to the teeter – there was no place for him to put his front feet in the grass, which is why he was either keeping them on the teeter or putting them on the target. You can move the target away from the end of the board, probably the length of a finger, and that would be perfect. He will let you know based on where he puts his front feet.
If that seems comfortable, you can move into the more formal bang gqme, where you are holding him right next tot the end of the board, give a target cue, and let him leap into position (minimal board movement at first). I bet he picks it up really quickly!
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
This went really well and the threadle wrap concept is really locking into place! And all of the normal wraps are very easy for him at this point 🙂At the beginning, he was leaving the stay at the same time the hands moved into position, which made it harder to get the first couple of responses. You ight have been releasing at the same time too, it was hard to hear it. It looks like he was seeing the first bit of hand movement as the wrap cue, so you needed to really exaggerate to body line to get the threadle wrap. Getting him to hold the stay until he sees the full cue will eliminate those bloopers.
You can add in stay rewards for letting you put your hands in position without the release, and also be sure to separate the release from the hand movement by several seconds after the hands are put in position. That way he won’t think the hands are the release, which might be what he was thinking here. He might break several times in a row if you show the hands but don’t say the verbal, which means he definitely thinks the release in this context is the hand cue.
Outside of that, he was finding the line really well and reading the motion! He would sometimes want to go with you up the line rather than finish the wrap, but we can help that with a tweak to the placement of reward:
The rewards here were thrown forward after the wrap, which is very exciting 🙂 and probably why he was very ready to run forward. To make finishing the wrap as exciting, you can mix in lots of throwing the rewards back to the landing spot of the wrap. That will help him be even more independent
To add the tunnel exit: with his speed, the turn on the tunnel exit will become key to getting the threadle side of the wing. Using his setup you can move the wing further away (towards the trees, not towards the camera here) so you can cue the turn before he enters the tunnel and have enough room for him to make the turn when he exits to get to the correct side of the wing.
Great job here!
Tracy
Hi!
These runs went really well!
On Jazz’s runs at the beginning – you were sticking close to the jump (like at :07 and :11), and he seemed to like having you near the line. It is definitely something to keep playing with: on lines with turns, staying close but staying in motion. That might mean that you run close to the wings of the jumps for now but it will help support his lines.
One other thing noticed here: when you were giving him the next info and verbal cues, he got faster. And he really liked the layering (on the 2nd run, for example). When you were praising him as you ran, he slowed down. It was as if he was not sure what to do when you were praising him so he slowed down.
Sammy also did really well. The blind cross to threadle wrap looked strong! You were really trusting his commitment, so the timing on the your blinds looked good – very nice timing at 1:02 &1:55 & 3:29 & 3:53. You started the blind when he exited the tunnel and he committed to the jump really well. Jazz also committed really well with his commitment when you trusted him (like at 1:33). SUPER!!!! They have really built their commitment up!
The full sequence looked really good too. Very nice timing of the BC after the tunnel to get to the backside! And Sammy also liked the layering a lot, which set you up for really good timing for the BC to the threadle wrap at 2:32.
The rear crosses on the last tunnel were harder for the boys to read. You would need to be very close to them to show a lot of rear cross pressure on the line. But with the tunnel curving the other way, even a perfect rear cross would be very hard to read.
The blind cross is the ideal cue before the last tunnel – and I believe you can get there! After the threadle wrap, keep moving as you cue the net jump with connection and a verbal. And even if you are not in perfect position, you can still start the blind when he is at the jump after the threadle wrap 🙂 Your motion will support the line and he will see where to be pretty easily for the last tunnel.
Great job on these! It was so fun to watch you can the boys get more and more confident on the blind crosses and connection. Now even these hard blinds looked smooth and confident!!
Lovely work 🙂
TracyGood morning!
He was such a good boy here! Excellent session!
The toy in your hand is very exciting for him but he did a GREAT job of turning away from it! Yay! The questions he had were not about the toy, they were about your motion: Be sure to decelerate until he gets a step or turn into that turn away – if you are moving in a steady motion, he would go with that motion like at 2:48 & 3:16 & 3:54. Adding decel is good, though, because we do use decel with this cue on full courses as well.
To help get the commitment even with motion, you can throw the reward back behind you to the where he would be landing from the jump, rather than deliver it from your hand. That will build value for finishing the wrap more than coming with you 🙂
He did go to the other side of the wing when you wanted the threadle wrap at 1:51 but that was a bit of a handler blooper 🙂 – you were facing the regular wrap wide and no as connected. Compare to the next rep where you were more connected and turned slightly away from the wing. That makes a big difference!
And he had no questions about the first balance reps on the ‘normal’ side of the wing 🙂 Now that he is learning 2 cues for the wrap, the connection becomes more important for both cues. When you were connected, he was pretty perfect on the balance reps. When you were looking at the wing more than looking at him (like at 2:24) he was not as sure where to be.
Great job here! You can try adding the tunnel by backchaining from a sit at the tunnel exit. And you can exaggerate your line of motion pulling away from the wing for the threadle wraps and see how he does.
Tracy
Good morning!
>I like the MM for the beep so they know they got it (or didn’t)>
A verbal marker is better because the MM malfunctions a LOT!
> but Brioche is not excited with the MM. Maybe I could use the MM for the beep reinforcement but put a toy just behind it or next to it. Maybe he wouldn’t grab the toy and run with that set up?>
For my big dog, I put his frisbee on top of the MM 🙂 And you can put a toy in the dispenser dish where the treats come out.
>What food do you put in the MM? >
I do a trail mix of random stinky dried treats, including freeze dried salmon. I also mix in a little cheese, mainly for the smell even if they don’t actually come out of the MM.
> because I finally have GI balance in the household and don’t want to mess that up!>
That is the most important thing!!! We definitely don’t want to mess that up!!
Have fun this weekend!
Tracy
