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Hi!
Awwww she’s a great swimmer!!! That will be great for keeping her cool.
And she will grow up to be wicked fast- step 1 is confidence, step 2 is understanding, then the speed takes care of itself 🙂
You might note that my demo pups in the videos are not speedy, because I was aiming for understanding. They are adult now, and confident, fast competitors in 2 sports. We let it percolate as we build it all up, and it turns out really well 🙂
TracyYay! I’m glad the lower position helps, and I’ve found the rear foot targeting can be very clarifying for the pups too.
>>In other news, she hopped onto a low Dogwalk and ran it…Yikes! (cones going on DW when we are out there)>>
I think the pups have all hit a confidence stage, half the people in class have reported the same thing about the pups getting on contacts LOL!! Contact lockdown time LOL!!!
Tracy
Hi!
This session went well too!!! I am glad she actually went to the cheese before racing to the toy – great countermotion foundation!!!
And she got faster and faster each time. Be sure to throw in some easy reps where you start side by side with her (no cookie toss) so she can win by a mile 🙂 That will give her the feeling of driving way far ahead of you with full confidence.Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning! I somehow missed this post! So sorry!!!
She did really well here! At first your hand was a little high when rewarding so she had to look up to get the treat, which threw her balance off.
Then you get your hand lower when you starting getting her to turn around, and that helped a lot – much better balance!!! Balance is hard to baby dogs 🙂The next thing to try with her is to duplicate what you did here, except adding in tugging before and during the session: this challenges her to work her balance and coordination in a higher state of arousal, like she will be when she is eventually running courses 🙂
So tug before the session, then do a couple of treats, then ask her to hope off the board to tug more , then back on the board 🙂 it can significantly change the game!Great job here
TracyHi!
She looked great here – she was really powering on the lines and made you RUN RUN RUN. Yay!! The lefts/rights/tunnel sends/ wraps all looked good – the turn aways ad the wraps needed you to be far enough ahead at the end of the tunnel, which was not always easy with the speed she turned on here! And you made it harder with a 20 foot tunnel LOL!
Nice job with the turn aways in both directions, then adding the tunnel, then building up to the full sequences. She was fast and accurate, and ignoring a ton of chicken noises LOL!
At the beginning you had an empty hand for the turning away which was easier than when you had the toy in your hand when you changed sides. Good job working through it so she could ignore the toy and read the cue!!
Your connection looked super and all of your verbals were in place – yay! On the big runs to beat her to the end of the tunnel, keep your arms in on the send and make a big connection – sometimes your arms would come up high so she would track your hand more than look at the wing.
You added more distance to the wing when you were trying to outrun her through the long tunnel and that really helped you get there for most of the reps 🙂 Just as I was thinking she was hot and tired, you ended the session (you were hot and tired too :)) and Susan put the temperature up to the camera LOL!!! HOT!!
Great job here!! You can add more sequences like sending her to the wing on the other side of the tunnel to ad even more distance.
Tracy
I thought you were fine with your verbals! You kind of have to say SOMETHING lol!!! You did not over-do the ‘here’ 🙂
Hi!
>>On the jumping drill, I’ve been using 3’ steps on the last jump. In the videos you use 5’ but I *think we were using 3’ I. The last session. Hope I’m not kray.
You are not kray – the first interval which does not change, is 5 or 6 feet for the bigger dogs (I believe it was 5 feet on the demo video) then jump 3 moves away, 3 feet at a time (not 5 feet).
>>He went around the jump when I tried to raise it from 10” to 12” on one rep. What I think should be relatively easy for him, Bob has other ideas. So I didn’t push it.>>
Yes, don’t push it was the right decision. More below!
>>Oh, on the accordion, should he be hopping vs. single striding at the first jump movement location? It’s a long hop! And should I be moving the bar in 3 or 5’ increments as we proceed with this drill?>>
Depends the dog and the distances:
Say the interval between jumps 1 and 2 is 6 feet for Bob.
Rep 1 would be 6 feet- 6 feet, he should bounce those (one hit of the front feet in each gap)
Rep 2 would be 6 feet then 9 feet between 2 and 3 – ideally he would bounce that too
Rep 3 would be 6 feet and 12 feet – he is probably a little too young to bounce that, so you might see a bounce between 1 and 2 then one stride (2 hits of the front feet) between 2 and 3.That is basically what happens on the video – bounce bounce bounce, including a longer bounce at :16. Then a one-stride at :25.
He went around the jump at :28 – two variables had changed (distance and height) so only change one variable at a time (distance OR height not both). And I couldn’t see where you were, it is possible he was reading something in your line too. The rest of the session went well!
So in the next session in a couple of days, work up to the distance you had at :28 but don’t raise the bar and see how he does.
At the end of the video, he did more jump grids – was it all the same height as the previous session? I think so, but he was not powering over 1 as much – could be the jumping towards the wall was sitting him back a little more than usual. The rest looked really strong!!
>>The lap turn drill is easily the hardest thing we’ve tried. I think we’re getting there but please do tell me how to proceed. It’s hard AF>>
It is hard indeed! But clearly you have been working on it and it looked great here!!! There was only one blooper: You were late at 1:22 (he gave feedback on that LOL!) then you tried to get him to do it again on the same wing and it didn’t make sense (then there was an edit LOL!)
The hard part with the lap turn is that you basically have to be decelerated and waiting for him as he exits the previous wing, then hold that position til he just about gets to you. Lordy!!!! It is hard but you were doing it! I think you should now move to the tandem turns, which are easier to do while moving and you will probably use ore often on course nowadays 🙂
Great job here!!
TracyHi!
>>I’m not sure for the “German turn” which side the dog is supposed to end up on?
The German turn involves a bind cross exit, so he ends up on the other arm than the one you started him with 🙂
In the first session on the video:
He did really well with the backsides here! Nice! You were able to be all the way across the bar and do countermotion. Nice job getting the toy to the landing spot as you moved past the wing – the only thing to add is looking at the landing spot as you move past it (like you were doing on the countermotion moments) and also point at the landing spot as you look t it and run through. The isolated countermotion also looked great!1:04 was early, great job pretending was perfect 🙂
Second session also looked great – you were more patient on letting him commit to the backside before turning to the tunnel. He committed well and the little sequence looked great! He did indeed smoke you on the last backside LOL! So you can drop the toy on the landing side as you run through the line – you wee dropping it towards you so he was putting on the afterburners to get to you.
>>I figure I’m late giving him the end-side information.>>
Yes, I think you wanted the German turn there at the end but it was too hard on the low bar – you will have a lot more time on a higher bar and also you will be able to disconnect to do the blind sooner.
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
I am glad you had a fun weekend at the trial! Sounds like his did really well!!!
The Starfish is going well – the left/right/tunnel/etc turns and commitments look great!!
But here is a big thing to consider: TUNNEL TUNNEL! And KoTAUlo! KoTAUo! Sound very similar when you are shouting them fast and in the heat of the moment LOL! That might be why he had trouble coming off the line on the tandem turns on the wing to his left (heading towards the camera). When he was doing it to his right earlier in the video, you were further ahead, decelerated, and quieter on the name call, so he picked it up better.
He did sort it out after several reps but I think a clearer verbal will help: a quiet “Ko” can be very distinct as the attention getting and you can start using the threadle slice verbal on the tandem turns instead of his name. That will help differentiate the ‘forwardness’ of the tunnel verbal and the ‘gimme your attention’ of the name and the threadley behavior of the tandem turn.
And that can make things easier when you add the bigger sequences like at 1:18 – you had his attention but it was harder to get him to turn away from you to find the wing. So the threadle verbal will get that going.
I think you were using it a 1:33 (‘in in in’ and that totally helped – remember to keep moving forward as you get him to the correct side of the wing, you almost stepped behind him too soon there.
Nice work! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
>>We having trouble finding shade and room to run. She was a trooper.>>
Yes, she was definitely getting hot towards the end – poor little one has not been alive long enough to experience real heat! Her heat tolerance will develop over time but definitely keep her cool for now. Are you a morning person? I try to train at sunrise when the weather is really hot LOL!
Does she like water? You can have a baby pool nearby so she can cool off every 30 seconds or so.
Parallel path looks great! Try to stick with your ‘get it’ and not the ‘yip’ marker, to keep her looking ahead. You can add more lateral distance now, gradually getting further from the prop.
The countermotion is also going really well! She did well to her right but she did better to her left! Hmmm, maybe she is a lefty LOL! Keep slowly adding the countermotion like you did here – she was vey successful and we want to add it gradually to keep her successful.
Well done! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
She did well here, this is exactly how the first session of this game should go! Keep reminding yourself to NOT move til she gets to the line 🙂
You can add in a little engagement and step to the barrel after you get the toy back – on the last rep, you got the toy back but then disconnected and froze, so she was unsure. At this stage, we are moving the wraps from an offered behavior to a cued behavior, so you can engage with her and use your arm and leg to step to the barrel.
>>I think I’m going to find a different object that might work better.
This barrel was perfect – don’t change it 🙂 Keep playing the game and let latent learning work its magic 🙂
You can also try the other side to see if she is a righty? The left turns looked good here so it will be fun to see how she does to her right (starting on your left).
Nice work!
TracyHi!
The food session looked great! The ‘get it’ was super easy and happy-making for her 🙂 and she was really polite about taking the treat for your hand – if you hadn’t mentioned that it was sometimes challenging, I would not have known. Your delivery to her mouth was spot on, great mechanics.
Toy races looked really good – she won them all except the big cheat when you pushed her back LOL!! You were a great winner too, engaging with her as you went back for the next rep. She is doing really well, so you don’t need to worry about trying to win a lot 🙂
It is a high energy, high pressure game – so if she needs to take the toy on a little run before coming back to you, that is fine 🙂 I like to count to 3 in my head while the pup is having a runabout, then call the pup back (and trade for another toy to help build up the retrieve). That short lap with the toy is the pup learning to regulate her internal arousal – and the skills get better when we let them do it 🙂 It sounds counterintuitive, I know, but the decompression moment really helps 🙂 More on decompression later in the class 🙂
>>JJ was sleeping between turns. She has a Household puppy class that day and she also did some Cato board work and a few games earlier in the day (not to mention running around with the other two dogs in the yard), so she did not have the drive that she has earlier in the day in the live class. Not much I can do about that.>>
She was great in class last night! Love her!!! If she has a busy day on class days, you can build in more daytime sleep for her. Sleep consolidates learning, so a long sleep after her puppy class would be great, as it can serve 2 purposes: to consolidate the learning from the class and rest her for the evening class. She can skip other games that day, and you will get fill force JJ during the evening class 🙂
Great job!
TracyHi! Lots of good work here!
>>still working on week 1 games and trying to get those right before we move on.
They are going well – time to move on 🙂 There is no need to wait til they are perfect, you only need to get them roughly right then move onto the next stuff 🙂
>>Struggling with distractions in the basement.
I think she was not really distracted, just a couple of mechanics and time issues (see below). And you can have everything more ready by the time you bring her in: toys/treats/etc ready, camera on…. Then bring her in and get right to training.
>> Should I move to somewhere less distracting first, and then move to basesment with exercises?>>
Nope! The basement distractions give you valuable insight into your mechanics and her focus was mostly really good! And the re was only one toy that was a bit les-than-exciting – the main thing with the toys is going to be use really fun ones, keep the toy moving so she can chase it, and do short sessions.
Focus forward 1: This went really well. The main suggestion here is to remember to trade the toy for a cookie for the “out”- you were pulling the toy away while lifting her by the collar, which can actually cause her to hold the toy longer.
The session was very active and went on for too long – at 1:00 is when she lost focus. So try to time these higher energy toy-based sessions to 30 seances or 45 seconds, using the timer on your phone. That way you will be finished before she loses energy to keep playing.
Toy races – these went well! And this session of about a minute was a good session length – no loss of focus and the trade for the cookie went well!
To keep building this up, you can let go of her sooner – as the toy lands, she looks at it so let her go drive to it before she looks back at you.
2nd toy race video was also good! This was a super short session – one thing I notice here and on the previous video is that she looks at you when you make noise as you are running forward, so try to be quiet so she can keep focused on the toy. And if she looks at you because you are running, you can slow yourself down so she looks straight at the toy the whole time.
Cookie turns – this went really well with you standing still, so now you can add motion forward – as she is getting the cookie, you can be waling forward. When she is halfway to you, slow down nd show her the decel cues that you did here.
This session is also a perfect length and no loss of focus!
Blind crosses – I don’t think she was distracted here, I think she is not yet great at finding cheese on the carpet 🙂 You can use a towel or something to toss the treat too, so she can easily see the cheese, or use the darker treat because she found that nicely (iust be sure it doesn’t roll under the couch, which is what happened later in the video).
Wraps –
>>This session was too long but didn’t want to end on a fail)>
Actually…. When time is up, you can totally end on a failure! It won’t be a problem at all and it is better to keep the sessions short. And also if she fails, don’t make a big deal of it. When she was successful, you were a very quiet cookie dropper. But at 2:04, you had moved it too far away then made a big deal when she missed… which brought attention to what she did and so she kept doing it a few more times 🙂
She got back on track but then you made it harder agin and did several more – then she was very done and didn’t want to play.
So for the wing wraps, you don’t need to make it harder and harder throughout the session… just make it a littler harder in each session, keep the session short, then you can build on that in the next session.
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
