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Hi!
>>I took her out today to work her in a VERY challenging location with the family. The golf course across the street causes a huge level arousal along with my husband’s b/c there.>>
Perfect!!! She looked stimulated but not insane, and that is great! It is really convenient to have relatively easy access to such a challenging location.
>> I did a huge amount of foundation jumping with a stationary toy.Tervs are very handler focus/up right jumpers so I used it to create more forward focus, obstacle drive and more extention in jumping. I think I did achieve that to some degree but perhaps I could have gotten better results with a moving toy. I do think she has pretty good form for a Terv but obviously there is room for improvement:-).>>
I have also done a TON of foundation jumping with stationary targets (toys or food targets) and while it seemed to work, there was always an element that I thought was missing… then I started doing some flyball and wanted to improve my dog’s flyball jump work and I did that with a moving target (dragging toy). So a small lightbulb went on and we added that moving target to the traditional jump grid work and young dog training – it has been great fun to see the results! The dogs have more powerful organization and are better able to organize when we are running (I do begin with the stationary target to get the concept going, though).
Looking at the 2 videos in slow motion, she is doing well with driving to the moving target! That will be useful when we get the jump bars into the zig zags.
Looking at zig zags 1:
This went well! Her line up position at :38, practically touching the wing was the most ideal because it simulate where she might want to approach the bar on a serp or backside slice. And you can put yourself more on that line too, close enough to the wing to casually touch it: that position will tighten her line, which adds challenge.>>I put the stanchions 5 feet apart. I am pushing it?
I liked the 5 feet apart, I think it was easy for her so next time… 4 feet apart! She is going to run into 4 foot bars on hard jumping efforts, so we definitely want her to be prepared for that.
>>Also, looking at my video, I am not sure that my delivery of R+ is correct.
It was good! It might have looked a little off maybe because you were a little further from the wing, laterally? But throwing the reward so she carried through on the line works well for this.
So you can keep visiting this game with both of you closer to the wings for very tight lines that will require quicker lead changes. And, you can totally go to the 2 jumps zig zag with low bars.
Plank organizers:
>>Probably not an approved surface.>>
Ha! It was fine for this game because we aren’t going fast or jumping LOL!
This is overall going well – my only suggestion here is to dial back your motion to a more casual, slower walk. I think your motion here was a bit too brisk, because she had some organization questions (stepping off on the first rep, right hind off at :16, some foot pattering to get into the sit when she was on your left). Interestingly. she seemed to tuck into the sit a bit better when she was on your right but she was definitely producing some good quick tucks into the sit later in the session on your left as well. So to get that more consistently, dial back the motion. And that will help when you add the wing too, because the wing (and the jump) will add a layer of arousal that will challenge her so we don’t need to have motion challenging her there as well until later in the progression.
Looking at the leading with the head videos:
>>Not sure I am delivering R+ correctly on this one. Normally, I would toss away from me to encourage a tighter turn around the wing. Assuming we are still just mark/reward head turn.
Yes, we want to mark & reward that head turn before she arrives at the wing. You were using the rewards to also reset her into the loop for the next rep, which is good, but I have one suggestion to add to it: give yourself enough room to throw the cookie back hat she can get it and turn around, so you are cuing the wrap with her head facing the wing and not her butt LOL!
By having her already facing the wing before you cue each rep, she won’t have to turn around then try to turn her head – the turning around is causing a delay in the head turn (it is happening after arrival to the wing). If she is facing the wing before the cue, she can turn her head sooner because she doesn’t have to first turn and then try to get the head turn in with limited room.So you can click and toss the reward the rest of the way around, then call her back to you for a reset cookie where you use a cookie in your hand to turn her around to face the wing. Or, you can give yourself more room and toss the cookie further back behind you, so she gets it and turns around before passing your chair. (Or, click and reward from your hand while also turning her back around to face the chair). Any of these will work nicely because you have good timing with the clicks and then she will be facing the wing for the next rep, which presents the opportunity for more good clicks 🙂
Great job! Let me know what you think. You can definitely start the 2 jump zig zags, and I bet you can add the plank to the wing after one more session of getting the sit on it with you moving a little more slowly.
Tracy
Hi!
Motion override looks good!!! He did well when you were moving at a normal pace. Faster was harder but that is good! And it was cool to see him do it in a different environment – no problem, says Kaladin.
>>Balanced with grabbing the frizzer from my hand since too much asking for a sit makes him start to slow down and anticipate.>>
That was a smart training moment: I was just thinking that it looked like he was starting to anticipate the sit too much and then you went to releasing forward to the friz. Click/treat for you 🙂 And getting him moving for longer stretches before cuing the sit will help too, so he doesn’t find a rhythm to it. Dogs can count LOL!! I catch myself doing 3 steps then cuing the sit, so the dogs sit without waiting for the cue when I get to the 3rd step LOL!!!!
>>I think I maybe should have let him settle more into the sit on the first 2reps before having him catch his reward.
I thought your were solid with your rewards – rewarding the initial choice and initial weight shift. He did really well! You can totally work up to running but also since we are moving to the planks, you don’t need to keep doing this (I do use it as part of a dynamic warm up before runs, though).
The organizers look good too – the smaller square is harder with motion, so he had a little more trouble getting his nice tight sit going – but definitely revisit that as it is a great conditioning thing!
On the plank: I am super pleased with how well the motion override transferred to the plank!!!! Good boy! Nice tight sits even with your motion and with him coming in faster from the wing wrap. SUPER!!! So…. add it to a wing. Transfer the concept to the wrap game on just the wing. And if things continue as well as they have been going already, you will probably only need one session of that and then we can move to the jump. Yay!
>>For the Zig Zag, I’m wondering if he has a slight preference to me being on his right or if it is the lead change sequence of right to left that he likes.
Maybe a bit of both. It is good to know so we can build concepts on the more comfortable side then move to the more challenging side. He is normally quite balanced so I assume he will be the same here.
>>Tomorrow is a rest day from training.
Sounds good! Then onwards to the plank plus wing, and then zig zags. You can probably do bothin one day if time permits, because there is no jumping yet with the organizers. He is making fast progress! Great job!!!!
TracyGood morning! Very fun to play this outside at the trial! I sue this game as part of my warm up for the dogs – it is dynamic motion and a good brain game 🙂
>> I started with a toy which was too hard, I think? She kept stopping, which was awesome, but I was asking for a sit, which was hard. I switched to some cheese (2nd half of the video) and that was better, but this game in general is HARD
Totally agree: this is HARD!! The cheese helped (food rewards are probably more associated with sits anyway). You can also slow your motion way down to get her to respond faster: walk only as fast as you would walk if you were carrying 2 very full cups of coffee 🙂 Your speed will be barely past a shuffle 🙂 That lack of motion will help her respond faster, and it will also help you to not decelerate to help her out. As she gets better and better at it, you can add more motion. When you reward: do you have a cue that tells her “I am throwing the reward to you”? That can be more useful than the ‘yes!’ because that will help her understand to not release when you say ‘yes’.
>>1. Should I be repeating the verbal (I was saying “sit sit” – I repeat my verbals ad nauseum in agility, but I also am hearing the ‘only ask for it once!’ refrain that I always heard in obedience. Thoughts?>>
In this game: it is a processing game so we would like her to process and respond quickly, so only say it once. In agility, with the verbal directionals: say those 10 zillion times because she has to pluck those out of the whirlwind of all the other things: fast motion for her AND you, obstacle discriminations, physical cues, etc – plus repeating the verbal helps us be on time when running courses. if we only say it once and we are late or incorrect with the physical cues? She might not ‘catch’ it and that is on us, not on her. But this game has very few distractions, so I stick to saying it once here.
>>2. The release is just tossing the reward, correct? I wasn’t using a release word – I hope that’s OK.
When you reward: do you have a cue that tells her “I am throwing the reward to you”? I say “catch!” That can be more useful than the ‘yes!’ because that will help her understand to not release when you say ‘yes’.
>>3. Does the behavior need to be a static one (sit or lie down) or could it be something with movement? I like the sit or down because it’s clearer, but is another obvious behavior (spin or something like that) OK?
For other applications of this game (such as basic processing of verbals while the handler moves), it can be any behavior and in fact, it can be a variety of different behaviors. But for the purposes of hind end organization for jumping, it can only be a sit because that is the closest approximation to what she needs to do to jump.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
This was such a cool session to watch – I think she placed her hind end ever-so-slightly differently on each rep! I agree that her right rear seemed generally more organized than her left rear, which would be in keeping with our thinking that she is a righty. The right rear was pretty much in the same spot each time, it was the left rear that was freestyling a bit LOL! I don’t think it was the way you were holding your hands but you can experiment with that and see what happens when you feed with your left hand and not you right hand. Maybe she is used to getting the treat from your right hand like she got it here, so she is subtly lining up to it and that is causing a slight weight shift?
The sits were generally organized, so what you can do is work sessions of just the tight sits on a smaller, square platform so she has less room to freestyle with her left hind 🙂 Do you have anything that is maybe one inch narrower than the plank you used here? The one you used here will be perfect for the work with the jumps, but a smaller one with get the tight sit to be a little more balanced.
Because there is a conditioning element to this, it will take a couple of sessions to percolate the tight sit. And because there is a whippety dog element to this too, the latent learning will kick in and BOOM! She will have it perfectly forever LOL!!! So I think maybe one more session on a smaller square to tighten the left rear in the sit, then onwards to the plank and the wing 🙂
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
Her motion override game looks great! Latent learning is so cool 🙂 She was doing really well with getting into the sit pretty quickly, even with you jogging. Super!!! That will be very useful in upcoming organizer steps.
Looking at the sits on the platform: you were approaching it as more of a shaping game… but you can 100% help her and cue the behavior 🙂 It is not an offered behavior, it is a cued behavior: when you are standing in front of the plank, get really close to it so she is not tempted to step off it towards you. Then use a sit verbal and even a hand cue for now if needed – anything needed to establish the sit without any other offered behaviors. Stay at that level til she gets into the sit on the plank almost immediately without any other offered behavior.
The same will hold true when you add your motion: cue the sit 🙂 I think you were waiting for her to offer, but she is not sure what to offer and the game will work better with the sit cue. So, as she is approaching the plank as you move, cue the sit just like you do with motion override on the flat. That will help her get organized on the plank. When she can do that regularly with a little bit of movement from you, we can move it to a wing.
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood catch! I agree that the Cato plank meaning two different behaviors could be confusing. So yes, use the aerobic step for the organizers as that should be very different for him. And if it is too similar or two confusing, we can figure something else out, no problem 🙂 Let me know what he thinks 🙂
TracyGood morning!
>> Street did well when the jumps were angled at about 40 degrees and the wings were slightly overlapped. When I tried to decrease the angle, he started putting in an extra stride so I stopped the session and will try again later.>>
I think the session went pretty well – I only saw one extra stride (at :22) and I attribute that more to the Treat N Train being pretty close to jup 2, and also the stationary target doesn’t produce much forward drive through the zig zag. So, try it with the moving target and see how it goes 🙂 You should see more power in his striding and then should be able to change the angle.
>>I think this exercise is going to be difficult for Street given what we have been working on serpentines the past few weeks. The set up had the three jumps with stride regulators between each jump to encourage an extra stride between the jumps. The exercise focused on teaching the dogs to read the distances so they would collect/extend as needed. The distance between jumps varied from pretty wide (4ft between wings) to pretty narrow (wings touching).
Question: what was the desired striding when the wings were touching? Should be a bounce like we are doing here, so that would be fine (and adding strides when the jumps are further apart is fine but you might want to do some of this first then go back to that). If that is not the desired striding when the wings are touching, let me know of show me a video of what he is supposed to be doing and we can sort out a way that it will all work together 🙂
Nice work here!
TracyHi! Thanks for resetting the video! He is fun to watch 🙂
>>This video is after a couple sessions with both leading with the head and motion override. So let me know if you think I need to take any steps back. He has done some wrap work previously but not multi-wrap work. >>
I think the session went well! You dont need to go back to an easier step, all he meeds is one little tweak: He wasn’t always sure when to start or if he should keep going, so you can cue each wrap more: use and arm and leg to give him a little send to the wing to get started, then use an arm to cue the 2nd wrap so he is sure that he can go around again. It will also help you isolate that head turn. When you addrd motion and the toy at the end, he looked great!
>>For motion override… our hardest part has been that until now his ‘natural’ behaviour is a down.
Yes, this was a hard game! I think your motion at the beginning was a bit too fast, and he did well when you dialed back your motion. So to help isolate the sit, start by walking soooooo slowly 🙂 and keep doing the excellent click/treats you had here when he did sit.
Great job here! I’m looking forward to seeing the organizers and zig zags!
TracyGood morning!
She is doing well with all of these!
Leading with the head: The awkward luring was fine LOL!! Cuing the head turn will give you a crisp head turn to reward, so it is fine to use a hand cue to help her out when you want the 2nd wrap. You can think of the cue to turn her head away as being similar to a lap turn where you get her attention on your hand, the flick her away. That is a good bending game, both for the leading with the head and I also use it as a warm up on a wing before running courses or doing jumping games.
Moving target: “Hillbilly jump” LOL!!! She did a great focusing on the toy (I mean, it is her favorite!) on the flat and with the HB jump 🙂 Because she is so fast, you can keep the toy in motion til she gets to it then let her run through it by grabbing the toy and you let go of the line, so she can go past you with the toy in her mouth. That way she will learn to grab & go with it, rather than want to stop and drive herself into the ground.
I am glad the jump proofing went well! You were being properly dramatic LOL!!! You can probably add in putting a toy in your pocket and reaching for it as she is heading to the jump 🙂 Yes. you can move this up a notch (to 14 and then 16) and you can also add more speed by adding a tunnel before the jump – the sky’s the limit, as long as she is still successful 🙂
These are all going really well, so you can move to the step 1 of the zig zag (which you can probably move through quickly too, to move to step 2) as well as the organizers. I think the organizers in particular will be great for her because they require the dogs to be a bit patient as they approach the jump (that is HARD for the fast dogs!) as well as the dogs need to multitask and think about that hind end before takeoff.
Great job here! Looking forward to seeing more!
TracyGood morning!
Oooh, a birthday frizzer session of Motion Override: that must have been both challenging AND exciting because a certain Floof certainly loves his frizzers!!!! Glad he did well 🙂
Looking at the zig zags he is doing SUPER well!! This is such a hard game for the dogs and he was almost perfect.
>>I think he’s a bit more comfortable in the first direct (right then left),
yes, there is a subtle difference. It is fascinating to see the side preferences show up in this game, but it helps us sort out what the dogs need. He is most comfortable on your right side (moving target or stationary bowl, both looked good with more power coming with the moving target) and less comfortable on your less side – the one rep with the added stride and the bounces were wider from the jump and a little higher.
With that in mind, you might find that flattening the angles proceeds at different rates, depending on which side of you he is on: when he is on your right side, you can definitely flatten the angles a little, maybe an inch or two. But leave them open like there were here for another session on your left side.
That will mean a little bit of extra record keeping to remember where the angle was on each side LOL! You can jot it down, or I take photos on my phone after each session so I know where to put the angles for the next session (because memory is not my strongest skill LOL!)
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
>> I have a Klimb platform that I think will work better for him to sit on.
Perfect! You can add a yoga mat to the surface if he finds it slippery.
Great job with he zig zags on the flat! You had the key elements going: The proper line up, the cue to shift his leads, and the good rewards. He seemed to have no questions at all. Yay! You can add challenge for him on this game by putting the wings 4 feet apart (or even 3 feet apart) to work on the super quick lead changes. I like to play with that with the bigger dogs like Alta, because agility courses give them less room than, say, my 16″ jumping dogs. So he has to learn to be quick with those leads.
I also think he is ready to do the Zig Zag 2 game, using the 2 jumps.
The distraction proofing game was hilarious! The only time he touched the bar was on the way back to the setup at the beginning LOL!! And since he doesn’t like it when you are in the way, I am glad you chose the distraction of being in the way 🙂 By making it a game with reinforcement, he was happy to let you be a crazy person with late handling… because it was all fun and he got lots of rewards. Super!! You can re-visit this game with a higher bar at some point.
So since all of these are going well, you can move to the next step in the organizer games as well as get the Zig Zag 2 game started.
Great job!!!
TracyGood morning! She is doing really well with turning her head to the wing! Using the plank worked well for her and it is a nice transition from the ‘leading with the head’ game into the organizers with the wing. Yay! Since this is going so well – move to the part of the 3rd organizers game (To The Wing) where you add more motion of getting on the plank, into the sit, then wrapping the wing.
And when she is good with that… add some tugging or excitement. I think at each and every step for Maisy, we should teach the games with arousal because she can be aroused on course 🙂 What I mean by that is to teach the games when she is calm to get the form and precision and understanding…. then gradually add more and more arousal so she learns to maintain her form even when she is really pumped up like she would be in a trial.
There was only one rep of the moving target with the taller bar, but it looked lovely!!! Yay! And she was great with the distraction jumping too 🙂 I think she was a little unsure of where to look for the reward on those, but that is actually fine on this game: the challenge is for her to NOT touch the bar even when she is unsure of where to look. Good girl!
Based on her success here, keep moving forward with the zig zag 2 jump game – keep the angles relatively easy but add in the moving target reward.
Great job!!!
TracyGood morning!
The sits on the platform are going well! Interestingly, now that there is more movement, the platform is actually a little too small and her back feet kind of hang off the edge. So, for future Step 1 games when you re-visit them, use a slightly bigger platform. But for now, move on to the plank in the next step – it should be an inch or two wider than the platform here.
The leading with the head is going well too – it will be easier to see what to click if you cue it rather than let her offer it. What I mean by that is you can be a little closer, send her to the wrap and as she is finishing the first wrap – use a hand cue in front of her nose to turn her away to the 2nd wrap. That will smooth things out so you can easily see what to click. If she is offering it, she is looking at you more – the cue will help get her eyes off of you and create a crisp head turn.
Head down looked great with the moving target! The form was spot on for most of the reps – I think there was one where she didn’t drive to the toy but she was fine with it on all the others.
She also did well with the distractions – no problem at all, even though she did maybe think you were nuts especially with the jumping jacks LOL!
For the ZZ on the flat – it is perfectly fine to help her with strange looking handling LOL! You can use your arms and also your feet, but make them all more clear to her by moving closer to the 2nd wing and using a lower arm cue. The wings were not too close when you moved them in, her questions were more because you were so far from wing 2 that she didn’t recognize it as something she needed to go to. So, be close enough to wing 2 to touch it, and use lots of body language 🙂 Think of it as a bit of a half-front cross, so there is some rotation of upper body and even feet. Arms out to the side didn’t show the line to her because she was coming to a ‘front’ position unless you leaned over a bit (leaning over is fine in this game). No worries about needing to fade the body cues because we change the physical cues in the next game – the body cues here are just to get the game started.
Looking forward: You can definitely go to the next step of the organizer games. And, since the other foundation games look great, you can give the ZZ flatwork another spin with you closer to wing 2 and using more arms – then go to the next step with 2 jumps 🙂
Great job here!!!
TracyHello and welcome! I’m excited to see you here! And I agree – many dogs like Torrin don’t have a jumping problem, they just need more organization education 🙂
I’m looking forward to seeing the video! It is marked private so YouTube won’t let me see it 🙁 can you change it to unlisted?
Thanks!
TracyIt works! And the session looked really strong!
She is just about perfect on the left turns. The right turns were not as good at first here (and note how she offered a left turn in that section of the video) but by the end, the right turns had come up to meet the left turns in terms of leading with the head. Super!!!
Was she clacking at you? Lol!!!So the next step is to go to a wing, to help bring the behavior over and condition it to a wing. Then, if you like training this stuff, you can add making her higher with toy play then see if she can still approach the wing with the head turn 🙂
Great job! She’s ready for us to focus on the organizers and on the zig zags. 🙂
Tracy
