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Hi!
This is looking really good! Very nice commitment in both directions!!!! He is definitely interesting in the flying squirrel toy but was great about doing the barrel first.
>>I think I need a bigger, more obvious toy for grass that long!
Changing the placement of the toy so you were running directly to it and not past it really helped. And he was beginning to out run you for it too! A bigger toy can help and also trying to get the toy in the same spot each time, roughly, and not too far away. He didn’t always know where it went LOL!

>>And it seemed like when I was holding his collar with my right hand he was a bit more annoyed with it, but we got through it.Could be that it is his less comfy side, plus it took you longer to let go. But overall he was good on both sides (more below on that).
>>Also, I wasn’t sure if I should be stepping forward with my leg as I’m letting go to help indicate or to start with it forward and just let go.>>
You can totally step to the barrel with your leg; in fact those were the reps where he did the best!
At 1:00 you were a bit too far away – he did better on the next reps especially with the big step to the barrel. You were far away when you switched sides to the right turns and he did great, so maybe the right turn wraps can be the ones where you add more distance and you are a little closer on the left turn wraps for now 🙂
And he also had enough distance and commitment that you were able to add the blinds too – super!!!
Great job here!!
TracyDarn it, sorry about the time change!! If it was 7pm Eastern, would that work better? It looks like having a morning and evening class will allow for more time flexibility!
Hi!
I don’t think she was losing energy here on the grid or asking striding questions – I think she was reading your decel especially on the last 2 reps, and also collecting for the dead toy. She was mirroring the handling/target quite nicely!
On reps 1, 2 ,3 – you were moving briskly! On the next reps, you were basically stationary. That, plus the stationary toy, read as collection cues.So, to keep the striding the same throughout with no collection cues, you can use the moving target: lead out well past 3, release her and drag the toy target, staying in motion until she gets to the toy. That should give you a better picture of the striding!
I love the title of the second video! 🌟
She did really well, the wing commitment and turning all looked great! For the Go without a head check, you can add a couple of things:
– throw the toy a lot earlier, so she can see it before she exits the tunnel
– use your go verbal and acceleration sooner, so she sees and hears it a stride before she gets into the tunnel (about 6 feet before the tunnel entry) You were a shade late here, so she was not sure of the next line.At :41, her go was correct, totally straight! I think you wanted her to find the wing but it was off the straight line, she would have had to shift away to find it. So, be sure the wing side you want her to take is on her straight line – that will also really help the Go verbal because she can lock onto the next line 🙂
Great job! And congrats on the adorable new pup!!!
TracyHi!
Sorry for any confusion! You had also filled out the separate form for a working spot, which is why the invoice went through. But no worries, I can take that off – just ignore tue invoice.Thanks!
TracyHi!
>>Do you have any suggestions for online contact training? I am thinking about running a-frame and stopped teeter and dogwalk. I need something online because I’ve never done any type of running contacts with my dogs and it’s been forever since I’ve trained contacts. I’m sure things have changed in 8 years. I’d like your advice on this if you have any you can give me.>>
For the DW, try Tammy’s course:
https://www.cleanrun.com/product/independent_stopped_dogwalks_self_study_course/index.cfmI’ve got this as an independent study:
Not sure who is doing running a-frames, I will look around and let you know!
The accordion is looking good! Her striding into the grid and between 1 and 2 was consistently strong on all reps!!
On the first rep and last rep (the distances are the same), she looked good between jumps 2 and 3 too – she was lifting her head a little on the last rep more on that below. On the 2nd and 4th reps, the distance was awkward for her – she wants to bounce but did it more from her front end. On the middle rep, she was at her most comfy with the one-stride distance – really nice!
it was hard to see where you were and what the reward was doing – I think she will have even better form with the moving target, to keep her head down. My guess that it was stationary, based on how she was lifting her head? But let me know if I am wrong and it was moving – in that case, you will want to start closer to jump 3, drag the reward before the release and release her when you are about 10 feet past 3 (and keep moving).
Nice work! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! This is looking super!!
Turn and burn is very similar mechanics to your prop send! When you were clear and patient, she was perfect! If your mechanics were not clear, she had questions 🙂You can add more ‘ready ready’ and connection before you send her, so she goes even faster to the barrel 🙂
And definitely remember to be more upright and use your dog-side leg as part of the send. Without the leg, she is less likely to commit. At :40, for example, you were leaning forward and didn’t send with the leg, so she didn’t go (curled back to look at you). Compare to :48 and :54 where you DID use your leg, and she went to the barrel perfectly 🙂
As you add in leaving earlier and earlier (she did great with that!), try to keep your start position exactly the same each time – your belly button right at the barrel 🙂 That both lets her see the barrel more clearly, and makes the countermotion even harder because you are visually so close. You were moving your position further away, which made it a little harder to see the line to the barrel around you.
Have you decided what you want your wrap verbals to be? You can start adding them!
Great job!
TracyHi!
>> I thought the parallel path went ok but there was no way she would send to the prop far enough ahead for me to do a rear cross since she doesn’t have very high value for the prop.>>
The rear crosses don’t need the send, they are built off the parallel path so you can work them separately from the sending.
Looking at this video, I think we can smooth out your mechanics to make it clearer for her, which will get more prop focus as well. I was not really sure what you wanted in the beginning (sends? parallel path? LOL!) and neither was she 🙂
You did make it clearer that it was sending, but we can tweak some things to answer her question:
– try not to hold her collar or move her into position at your side physically. She didn’t really like that, and it was causing her to look at you more and not less. You can use a cookie lure to get her where you want her.
– then rather than hold her and lean into the prop, try to be upright, not holding her, use a little ‘ready ready’ then do a big arm & leg send to the prop with strong connection to her eyes. The leaning and looking forward was adding pressure so she was curling in front, but a clearer send will really help propel her away! You did a really good one a about 1:57 but you were a little too far away there – so do the same movement, but be closer to the prop.
– and you have total permission to worry less about the preciseness of the foot hit 🙂 We are shaping her to leave you to go do a ‘thing’, so you can accept and reward approximations of the thing 🙂 And since she was having trouble leaving you, so you can toss the reward out on the prop for the sends, to help her look at you less and send away more 🙂
This will solidify pretty quickly! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
Moving outside was great!
I think she did really well here! And you can reward a lot more 🙂
On the parallel path game here, bear in mind that her hits to the prop will look pretty different than the collection games because this one puts her more in extension – so it is perfectly fine to reward the less-than-perfect touches and the ones where she is clearly committing to the prop bu ther stride takes her over it: feet near it but maybe not quite on it. So I think all of the reps here were rewardable, because she was committed to the prop on each one. Some of the ones that didn’t get rewarded were touches on the edge of it, or her stride took her over it (not around it).Now, if she does do a big miss and is not near it, then yes, you don’t have to reward but keep moving forward. No need to send her back to it or stop moving – I think that was what was getting her looking at you more 🙂
The prop is a jump bar replacer at this stage, so to keep getting her to look forward, you can mark and toss based on her intent to go to it (rather than waiting to see a touch to it). Intent and focusing ahead are more important than the actual foot stopm 🙂 So when you see her looking at it and heading to it, you can use your marker before she even arrives at it, then toss the treat so it lands past the prop. That will help her focus ahead more! Waiting til she has hit is might end up with her looking at you more, because she has nothing out ahead to look at.
Nice work! Let me know what you think!
Tracy2 quick sessions of wrap shaping foundations. I blame the cold medicine for making me think it was a good idea to sit on that little donut – it certainly made the mechanics harder LOL!! But Jitterbug was brilliant!
Session 1: he needed me to show him the treats at first, he is not so good at finding treats yet 🙂
Session 2: adding the upright! Good boy, he got into the groove 🙂
Here is the first session of explosive stays 🙂
And yes, it is entirely possible he is chaining the jump up on me into the sit: jump then sit! LOL! I am not concerned, eventually I will be cuing the line up.
Hi!
She definitely had a fun time running back and forth through the tunnel! You can try trading her for another toy or treat here, so she brings back the first toy and then you can send her again. That can let you set up the different angles around the tunnel 🙂
For the MM:
>>She’s never seen a manners minder so we worked with that by itself. She’s cautious with it, sound and noise but will still take the food.
Start it without noise and without the gears grinding – just basically as a food bowl. When she thinks that is awesome, you can keep the beeper noise off and let her hear the gears grind then send her to the treats. And when she is happy with that, you can add the beeping noise back!
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi –
>>We’re really struggling with the holding the collar part of the barrel game.>>
Yes indeed! The collar hold needs to be built separately before it can be used in this game, especially with toys. See below for more on that.
>>In the first video she even tried to bite me😔>>
>>It seemed to me the higher value the toy the worse she was when I put a finger in her collar. I did move her collar, just held on while she thrashed. If I showed her the toy before I threw it, she was worse than if she didn’t see me toss it behind me.>>There were a couple of things that were different here that played a role – mainly being outdoors, tugging, etc. I think the tugging and higher arousal and then being held while the toy was removed was hard for her, with no food intermediary to help line her up. On the first video, she said it was a big surprising no-go to have the toy taken out of the picture while her collar was being held, so you got a high arousal response. In other words, she is not ready for that.
>>She seemed to respond better if I tugged, then held her body while I took the tug, and let her eat a treat as I then moved my hand up to put a finger in her collar.>>
The other clips had the food as the step between the toy removal and the line up, and things went much better. So definitely keep using the food as the intermediate step between tugging and being touched or lined up.
>. I’ve never grabbed her collar and moved her around. I don’t grab it at all.>>
That could actually be why she is having such a big struggle with it – complete lack of experience with being held by the collar. It is very easy to pick up little dogs, but then they never learn how to be touched by or held by the collar, or put their collar-necks into your hand: all of which are useful life skills.
So, train it separately as a reward strategy (meaning, don’t try to use any collar holding in any game here) and we will split the behavior into tiny tiny pieces:
First, no toys: use a cookie lure to get her close to you. Reach towards her but don’t actually touch her: deliver another cookie. One hand has the treats, the other is empty and reaches for her.
Over the course of several sessions, build up from reaching towards her to touching her to sticking a finger under the collar, to holding the collar.When she can do that, add in toy play before it and start over: tugging, use a cookie lure to get her close to you. Reach towards her but don’t actually touch her: deliver another cookie. The higher arousal changes the picture internally, so you will want to start at the very beginnin.
This is not intended to be done in one session – it can take multiple sessions or days or weeks, and falls squarely into the “it takes as long as it takes” category. You will know when she is ready for the next step when she stops moving away from you, or when she starts moving towards you.
And in the meantime, don’t use the collar holding in any game until it is built up as a reward strategy. So put this barrel game on the shelf for now until the line up and hold is more pleasant for her, otherwise she will have errors and that is not what we want at all.
For other games, you can use a cookie lure line up or a cookie toss start to replace the collar holding (you can also do something like a tiny bit of cream cheese on a spoon to line her up for the games that need her to start in a certain position).
Let me know if the plan makes sense!
Tracy
Hi!
This went well too! Tossing the treat further away om the 2nd and 3rd rep gave you time to get the lap turn hand in position as she was making a decision after eating it, so she read the cues really well. You had good timing of letting her get to your hand then turning hear away! After you turn her away, you can then start walking forward rather than remaining stationary, so she sees more of your motion as she is heading for the prop too.
Onwards to the tandem turn with the prop!Tracy
Hi!
This went really well! Being low ot the ground sets up the good mechanics for her while preventing the bending over. Super!!!! If only she could retrieve the targt when it goes rolling away haha!
Keep things low like this for another session or two – when she gets more used to the MM, you can use that as the reward (more on the MM below). And you can also work in having a toy in the reward hand, instead of a cookie, with the toy getting closer and closer to the ground for her to ignore while she is coming to the target hand.
Nice work!!
Tracy
