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Good morning!
His stay is off to a good start!A few ideas for you:
We can get more stay behavior if we change the placement of reward:
Don’t go back to him to reward from your hand – that makes him want to be near your hand, so adding distance is harder 🙂
Instead, as you move away and he holds the position, throw a reward back to him. I use a ‘catch’ marker (even though the dogs don’t need to actually catch it LOL!) and when I throw it back towards them, they can move to get it. Then I reset and start over. The reward can be a cookie or a toy!
Start with just a step or two, then mark and throw back to him. That will get the stay and the release!
I bet he can also do it without the Klimb – you can cue a sit on the flat and play. That way you don’t have to fade out the Klimb and transfer it to the floor.
Nice work here!
TracyGood morning!
>In the layering game, I was wondering at the time if I should have been saying jump but I wasn’t quite sure as the only cue I could hear on the demo video was go. We tried it again using the jump cue which he seemed to respond nicely to.>
He did great here! I didn’t want to start with the jump cue in case it all went sideways and he didn’t find the jump 🙂 He said it was easy, so you were easily able to add the jump verbal.
You can also add in a parallel line to the wing on the other side! And sometimes wrap the first wing tight and cue the tunnel instead of the layering.
>Aelfraed says that working on stay is much easier with the help of a station. Even with the slightly squeaky brother behind him. This was an unintentional hard distraction.>
Hard yes! But if I recall correctly, there were a LOT of good sessions at home when his big brother was on a station in the area, and Aelfraed was great about ignoring him. So it was a little hard but not unfair and he was GREAT! And he will experience dogs whining behind him when he is o the start line at a trial or even a class/seminar, so it was actually a rally good, real life exposure 🙂 He was super successful! And since he was able to release with speed and not slipping (the mat was not sipping either) you can mix in having the mat there to help with stays during other training sessions.
Great job!
Tracy
Hi!
>I did the wing close because he wouldn’t send from farther >
Work the connected send, and reward it with a thrown reward. If he is not going to the wing, the connection is likely the issue.
>As far as wrapping- it’s not likely to happen. I train in five minute bursts. It’s just not feasible.>
That’s relatable – it gets faster in terms of wrapping (take me 30 seconds with Hot Sauce now) but it needs to be practiced consistently.
> Maybe spray is warranted. He only slips IN the tunnel when he has to change leads.>
You have to do something. My guess is you only see the BIG slips and they are in the tunnel, which is of course affected by footing/appraoch to the tunnel. But he slips on the turf too, and has to adjust his movement which is less obvious.
>And it can’t be just me having to do it. Meaning, Am I the only one with dip sh*t dogs? I can’t believe in that concept. >
>I’m not trying to be confrontational I’m just not understanding why it only happens with my border collies. What am I doing wrong?>Your dogs are not dipshits – maybe you are the only one getting your dogs worked on and you see these issues. I see poor movement all over the place in agility, but the handlers don’t have their dogs worked on or checked out. You might be the only one who has body work or ultrasounds or sports vet checks done, so you will be the only one who finds issues. That doesn’t mean issues don’t exist – it just means others are not looking for them.
Many dogs will have underlying issues (such as trashed shoulders) and it shows up as things as changes in movement, slower times… but also these dogs might get more frantic and overaroused. Many dogs will continue to work
> but it does not mean they are sound. If I had lots of extra money, I would take the dogs that get frantic/overaroused or stress ‘low’ in agility, then dog MSK ultrasounds and physical evals. I don’t think these dogs have had that but it doesn’t mean the problems don’t exist.
>With the find the jump- I should not need a go to exit him out of the tunnel?>
You can work on being anywhere including the exit of the tunnel – but for now a little more onion closer to the line will help a lot.
T
Hi!
>I still struggle with encouraging Tarot to drive out ahead of me (she want s to turn and flank) and she will still occasionally run past an obstacle but this 4th time around was much improved over previous runs. >
You can play lots of toy races (using food or a lotus ball is fine :)) with Tarot, but add in doing it with a jump! And when you are behind her, make sure you are keeping your arms down and connected to the back of her head (or her butt). That can help a lot!
Also, if there is UKI in your area, you can enter NFC and have someone throw or place a reward or target to help her drive ahead in trials!
>The video I am sharing is not of one of our runs but the warm-up. A while back, I attended a workshop with Bobbie Bambhree at Y2K9s and she talked about these dots. Tarot trends towards high arousal and this dot game really helps her to settle. >
Yes, the pattern games with targets are known to help reduce arousal/anxiety by giving the dogs a focal point to reduce scanning the environment. She is doing really well! Just be sure you are standing still to let her offer rather than to move to help her 🙂
One other suggestion is to hold the leash rather than step on it, in case she scoots off. If you are holding it, it is easy to gather her up. If you are stepping on it, she will get accidentally yanked on the neck which we don’t want of course.
You can bring 2 of these dots ringside and play right before you go into the ring!
Have fun, keep me posted!
Tracy
Good morning!
OMG! It was so windy! I think she liked it – full of energy and speed! Fun!
She was definitely getting the idea on the RCs – there was a pretty massive difference in the straight line cues a the RC cues, from the moment she exited the wing wrap. Super!!
First right turn RC was a little late (looked like a straight line cue for a few steps) but then you got the timing in better and did great. It was fun to see you be able to switch back to the left turn RCs and she still got it immediately. SUPER!
The only blooper was at 5:20 where you ran straight almost all the way to the straight line wing – then did the RC info after she was already thinking it was a straight line. You were earlier on the next rep so she got it but even earlier & clearer on the last rep, so she nailed it. Yay!
>but still felt a little cramped so I’ll need to keep working on that. >
Part of what was getting the RCs successful was that you were setting the line with deceleration at the wing, then driving into the RC. We will keep doing that when she is running grown-up sequences 🙂 And that cramped feeling is what we will need to plan for on a lot of courses with her speed and stride length! You did great getting the info to her!
The serps are going well too – she was definitely ready to run 🙂 The hardest part might have been the snd to the start wing – that helps get you up the one to the serp! The best sends were when you had a TON of eye contact and very little arm pointing. She was not super fast on the send to the wing at first (probably because it turned her away from where she knew you were going) but then she caught on and added a lot more speed. The other side was really lovely! Great sends and great serping!
>. I realized after watching that I was rewarding her with the tug at my hand rather than having her go out to the tug, oops.>
No worries, it was lovely serping! You can add that on the next session, and you can also add moving the start wing even further away by a few feet: that will add more speed and also challenge you to get the send to it from even further away. Fun!
>We did some Diamond game too but I had to move the camera to a different spot and it was so windy it kept blowing over there, and some wings too, LOL. >
Yes, Mother Nature was not cooperating. But the rest of the training looking lovely! Great job!
Tracy
Good morning!
Serps – You are good at serps! They might be your frenemy 😂 but this session went well overall! I think having the wing so close to the jump made it harder for the first few reps – being so close, it is really hard to show the cues & position while also giving him time to process it. The last couple of reps were super good because you did show all of that! But you can also move the wing away a couple more feet to give hm and you more time.
About that wing – don’t be pointy when you send to it. When you pointed at it without a lot of connection, he did not go to it (because it turns your shoulders to the backside of the jump, not the wing). When you were very connected with minimal pointing? He sent to the wing beautifully. Little dude keeps you honest haha! And if you accidentally fling your arm/point so he goes to the backside of the jump instead of the wing, reset with a cookie because he is actually correct there.
Zig Zags –
>We did it but I needed coaching on which side to be on !>
It takes a village LOL! He can definitely make the lead changes, so it is a matter of how early you give the info.
His stays are looking strong which really helps! It will be easier if you don’t turn your back on him or face forward on the lead out. You can face him and cue the zig zags – those reps went great! When you did it more like a lead out pivot where you were facing away and then had to do a full FC, the cues were a little late and harder for him to read. You can still reward him – he was right each time, based on what you were doing on the release.
Lookng at the find the jump video:
>I have a lot of worries about tunnels since that’s how Ella blew out her shoulder.>
Poor guy!!! Hard truth: the escalation in shoulder injuries in dog agility (Border Collies in particular because of their hypermobility) is most likely directly correlated to the escalation of using synthetic, flat surfaces.
So you need to have something on his feet every time he runs on turf. Is it a pain in the ass to do it? Yes! Is it helpful to protect against injury? YES which is why it is worth being a pain. Wrapping with powerflex so it covers from his stopper pad to his large pad (leaving toes unwrapped) is my preferred way – my Mal/Whippet mix wears rubber tape over the powerflex to prevent the slipping.
If you don’t want to wrap, you need to spray his feet with one of those sprays or water of Coca Cola or whatever prevents the slipping. Sprays are easier and faster than wrapping, so use that if they work (they might not all work so you need to experiment with which one is best). But not doing something going to get slipping which is where the repetitive injuries come from. It is unavoidable and also protects the dogs from slipping/wrenching themselves when going to toys. Just.Do.It. and don’t make Auntie Tracy wag her finger at you!! Maybe in May I will do a session on How And Why To Wrap Agility Dogs For Turf Training. And at trials on turf, they all need to be sprayed. I had already been suspecting this and have gotten the lecture about it from Canapp TWICE (and I am sure I will hear it again haha because we are getting ready to do collaboration thing with him!)
He did well finding the jump when he knew you wanted the jump 🙂 On the first few reps, I think you were too far away, too decelerated, and too quiet 🙂 so he looked at you. When you were further ahead and closer, he was getting it really well! My favorites were the rep at 2:20 and the last rep – clear and connected! You can be adding more motion here to help support the drive to the jump, especially as you add more and more distance.
Nice work here!!!
TracyPS – wrap or spray his feet. I will keep bugging you 🙂
Hi!
> I think he likes wraps. You had mentioned putting cue on it. I used Dig dig for my other dogs with both directions. Do you use something different for right and left?>
Yes – I use one verbal for a wrap to the left and one for a wrap to the right, because I will never be able to outrun my dogs and can’t guarantee I will be able to show physical cues… so they are happy to get the verbals 🙂 Both of my wrap verbals are noises to prevent me from shouting them LOL (choochooochooo is wrap-right and tststs is wrap-left). Dig dig is a good one, and check checl is another common good one too!
> Backsides is around. I am assuming I use Dig dig for these.>
Yes, I consider the barrel games to be front side wraps. We will have more stuff with verbals coming soon!
>Hits on the target. Yea sometimes he seems to get it with touching and sometimes not. Does make me question his understanding of the foot prop.>
He seems to understand it well enough for our purposes here. It is basically “commit to a thing” 🙂 And we will eventually replace the “thing” (prop) with a jump or tunnel.
> Not sure if I will do running with him or not but I have DW rubber running contact mats to train that. It is much bigger than that prop too.>
Perfect! And when he is ready to start that, we will be long done with the prop.
Looking at the video:
> I will admit my training plan seemed to have gaps for the RC. After the start of the session I decided I should do a warm up of parallel path.>
I htink you might just need more room, so it is easier to get him to drive ahead. A long hallway would be perfect. But he is getting it for sure – he is very tuned in to your motion! Even in the smaller space, he was able to read the RCs based on your motion in both directions! Normally baby pups can’t do that. I am impressed 🙂 The times where he did not read the RC and turned the ‘wrong’ way were when you were a little late so he had already arrived at the prop. If you try it in a longer space, he will drive ahead more and that will make it even easier to show the RC.
Backing up: this is coming along nicely too!
>. I do question doing it with more of a shoot maybe with the cones or in a hallway.>
You totally can, but I don’t think you need to 🙂 You can do it in a chair to keep your hands low (without having to bend over the whole time). Have treats in your hands and your elbows kind of on your thighs, so your hands can dangle below knee-level. Keeping your hands low the whole time (at or below your knee level) then flicking the cookie back towards him to reward while keep his head lower and get more backing up. Raising your hands caused his head to come up a bit which stopped the backing up. You can also add a mat for him to back up on to, because that might clarify exactly what you would like him to do with his back feet 🙂
Nice work here!
TracyWow, his engagement was impressive: in a new, distracting area where he has never trained and he was immediately able to play the game. Super!!!!
This went well! Lovely engagement! The next step is that you can slow it down a shade, so he stops moving for a moment while he looks towards you. Then you can mark it with a ‘yes’ or ‘get it’ then throw the next treat.
You can also add in having him wear a leash (with you holding the other end) as a way to prepare for when you play this game in different places where he will have to be on lead. It will feel like you need 3 hands at first so practicing with the leash on at home will make it easier.
Great job!!!
Tracy
I just saw in your post below that it is a frozen tundra outside – definitely do not take this game outside! Indoors is good til the weather improves 🙂
T
Hi!
He did great with the collection sandwich! Superstar!!!
You were making really good transitions from going fast through the blind then decelerating into the pivot. :23-:27 and :43-:48 at the beginning had lovely decel, so he was able to collect and turn brilliantly. And you did that on all the reps where you were throwing the lotus ball: run, blind, decel, then run again (and throw :)) The lotus ball was the perfect choice because he really drove to it after the first rep (where he was figuring it out :)).
The next step would be to take this to a longer room, so both of you can move more! If the weather is good, try it outside. If the weather is bad, stay indoors 🙂 and maybe try this in a long hallway as long as it is carpeted so you and Rusty don’t slip.
> I need to monitor how many times a turn to each side. In this series it is out of balance – way more turns to my right.>
You can divide the treats into 2 sets, 5 treats each, and put them on opposite sides of the room to remind you to work both sides when you have to reload the treats 🙂
>Another question . . . Sometimes you pose questions in your responses. I do not know the proper way to respond to them which is why I haven’t done so. Do I just do another reply?>
You have a couple of options! You can create another reply if you like. Or you can answer the question along with anything you post – whatever is easier for you will work for me!
Great job here!
Tracy
Hi!
The backing up onto the pad went well! And I love how you were scooting the pad away with your feet, that was perfect for stealthily adding distance a tiny bit at a time. She did really well!! That chair was perfect for the game.
> Now trying to transition to standing>
Actually, no need to stand at this point! You can sit because it gets the really good form and that is most important (and easier for us humans, which is nice too :)) . So instead of standing, you canwork on more distance to the mat and adding a verbal cue to it. The verbal cue will make it easier to get the good form while you are standing too.
> I’ve learned that she doesn’t generalize well at all. lol. A lot of crazies going on at my house, I’m having several very large trees removed and it’s making training a challenge. Lots of noise and people. I’m going to have to catch up when they are done. Hopefully that will be Wednesday.>
I can see why that would be hard! You can try the pattern game from the resilience track while the craziness is happening – that is a great use for it!
Great job!
Tracy
Oops forgot to answer this:
>I’m headed to SF for a UKI trial (Monday). The courses for that day are designed by Tamas Traj, one of the judges for next months UKI Invitationals. It will be helpful to see what we’re in for there. >
FUN!! Get ready to run run run and expect lots of layering, distance, discriminations (jump-tunnel-weave).
>Also, rain is expected through the week. Given the weather, and concern that Jazz may have pain/discomfort, what sort of things can we be working on in the house this week??
I think it would be fun to do some lineup games, maybe more shaping of her cute face into the loop of the leash, and some tricks! What tricks does she know? Those are perfect for rainy days.
Tracy
Hi!
Looking at the first video:
Driving ahead looked really good here, the placed toy definitely helped!> On the first right turn he seemed to be expecting to go to the reward again but did follow through on the turn.>
You were a little late on the cue there (:14) – it started after he had made the takeoff decision and you were still running on the go line when he had to decide how to take off. You were much earlier at :21 on the next rep (and the reps after that), already showing the pressure on the line when he had exited the tunnel. That set up lovely RCs!
When you changed sides, adding the wings went really well! The rear cross timing was a little harder. You were actually too early at 1:09 – you can see your left foot was already facing the red jumps on the other side when he exited the tunnel instead of moving to the center of the bar. That is what pushed him off the line there (he turned before the jump).
You overcompensated by running straight for too long on the next rep 🙂 but the rep after that at 1:39 was spot on! Super!
You got the best RCs when you accelerated to the center of the bar. When you were hanging back a bit, you ended up running a bit too straight so he curled in towards your position (like at 1:46). That L-shaped running line created too much of a turn so he missed the wing after it. But whne you accelerated more, he read the RCs better and found the wing after it easily.
He did really well with the first layering concept! Good boy! Well done with your reward placement on those too. I think he liked the run run running part of it all 🙂 After he got the hang of it, he only had one question (:59) where he almost didn’t go to the jump. That was because you turned pretty early there, so the body said tunnel 🙂
Were you saying ‘jump’ or ‘go’ there? If you were saying ‘jump’ – carry on 🙂 If you were saying ‘go’ you can add in a jump verbal, because naming the obstacles can really help with discriminations!
The 5 bar ladder was challenging! He really had to think about his balance! On the 1st, 2md, and last rep, he did well on in the first 2 gaps (jumps 1-2-3) but then got a little weight shifted forward on the last 2 gaps (jumps 3-4-5). It is subtle at full speed, so you can watch in slow motion and you’ll see his head come up and hind end lift a bit.
The 3rd rep had the best balance! Good boy!Being held at the start might have added a little more excitement 🙂 so you can put that first bar down one notch lower so it is easier to step in even when he is pumped up.
To help him learn to stay balanced across all 5 jumps, you can move veryyyyy slooowwwwwwllllly LOL almost shuffling so he has a little less stimulation from the moving target.
Great job here!
TracyHi!
Good for you for pushing the limits – she was GREAT!!Finding the small cookie was the only hard part. She found the bigger treat easily and was great about tugging too! Your blinds looked good – nice and connected! And she pivoted with you brilliantly. You can add more running 🙂 by running away while she is getting the start cookie, to add more distance so she gets to run more too. And you can tug more after the pivots, and also add in throwing the toy straight ahead for her to chase too! She was really focused and engaged here!
Her pattern game session also looked lovely. She was excited to start it and fully engaged even before you tossed the first treat. Fabulous! Her engagement was terrific. You can add your motion to this too, strolling back and forth. The long line worked well but you can also use a regular 4 or 6 foot leash for this – that way you can get her closer to distractions and get her comfy doing this with a normal leash like she would be doing near the ring.
> I can see where my brain gives out (End of Trial Day Exhaustion) – and I revert back to ‘yes’ instead of ‘get it’ ….I am DETERMINED to get this :D.>
Ha! You can try setting a timer so keep the sessions to 30 seconds then break off to play tug, then do another 30 seconds… that way you get a break if your brain is tired. Macklynn was fine with the length of the session here 🙂
> Macklynn, however, seemed confident. She was on a decent length long-line that she is normally comfortable dragging around, but she didn’t seem to have any desire to get away.>
Yes, she looked happy, relaxed, and engaged. Super!!!
>I’m hoping to push the envelope on this in a more exciting area of the facility during next weekend’s trial.>
I think she is ready for more! That can be more tugging and running, or getting closer to the action. Have fun and keep me posted!
Nice work here 🙂
TracyHi!
>I think I’ve ruined the awesome little poodle that I had. I’ve created a confused pup. Hard to know if she’s in discomfort, or my confusing handling is causing the shutdown problems.>
You have NOT ruined her! We will sort out the puzzle. For training – she did well with the food and I want to get you doing an even higher rate of reinforcement! More on that below.
> I am concerned that if she is in pain or has discomfort that could explain the change in her response to these agility games.>
Possibly! Which is why we are sticking to easy, non-impact stuff. You can also give her a week off of training and see if it helps. Maybe ask the vet about a pain trial? A week of pain meds to see how she does? That can be incredibly helpful.
And also, in training you will want to reward *all* the things that happen in handling games, because if she is not getting rewarded due to a handler error, then it is deflating and confusing. And if something hurts, it can definitely be challenging.
>We played with the “Diamond” exercise, with just food. I realized after viewing this that I wasn’t starting her from a sit like you suggested… instead I’d start when she was “kind of” lined up>
That was fine! We still got some good feedback from her!
There were definitely some frozen moments, more on that below.
>. Couple of things I can improve on: reward more frequently,>
Yes! Reward all the things, in small bursts. Of course reward when it goes according to plan, but more importantly: reward if it does not go to plan. Because these are handling games, she can only respond to the cues she sees. And you have to assume that if the behavior is not what you wanted then the cue was not clear enough.
For example: you had gorgeous connection consistently on those tight blinds, so she nailed them!
She had questions in other spots, like coming back out of the tunnel at :42 when you pulled away too early. You can just reward that and for now, use a straighter tunnel so it is easier to stay committed even if you pull away too early.
Also, pointing ahead of her tends to be where more of the errors happen, when she pulls off a wing or the tunnel. You can see it at :53, 1:27, 1:11, 1:56 (she started sniffing when you stopped). You might have been able to see her, but with your arm ahead she could not really see which way to go and either guessed or stopped. In those moments, you marked her as being wrong which is deflating, so she gets more sticky.
You can also see it at 1:41 on the way to the tunnel – the pointing ahead caused you to turn away from the tunnel before she was committed, so she came off – you stopped to sort out the handling and did reward after a bit, but she perceives the stop as puniushment.
So on all of those, just keep running for a few more steps and praise and reward! No worries about accuracy at all for now.
> reward on her line instead of out of my hand (She seems to be looking for the reward too much). >
I agree about looking up at you a bit too much – partially because the food was from your hands, partially because she was not sure of what to do due to the no-reward moments, so she was watching more. You can use a lotus ball or treat hugger to be able to throw food rewards more easily.
>Also using the correct wrap verbals might clear up some of her confusion.>
Yes but I think connection is more important, so no worries about the words for now 🙂
Since we are also trying to sort out if she has anything that hurts, I watched her movement in slow motion for a lot of it. It is hard to see a fast little black dog move! At the beginning, it looked like a little bit of bunny hopping (keeping back legs close together) around the wing like at :14-15, :27-:28. And she had a stop in the action at :32, a frozen mment. Were you pointing ahead too much? Probably 🙂 But the motion was good and the wing was visible, so I played that in slow motion – there is some offloading of her left hind :33- :39) She got moving again when a cookie was visible. It is interesting to note this in case you need to show it to anyone,
Speaking of showing it to someone, how far are you from this, I think it is in Petaluma? There are spots left for evals and I think Dr. Canapp might be a bit of a genius!
https://townandcountrydtc.org/stride-to-strength-apr-2026/
>I have tapped down her back and she does react (her bitey behavior) when I get close to her rear>
Darn it, I wish I had asked you to video that! My bad!! Gentle tapping should produce a little ripple or spasm, so if you got bitey behavior then yes, she has an ouch or is feeling defensive about the area back there.
> – hard to tell if that is due to discomfort or just her bitey self as she can get bitey when I scratch her head, or rub her neck – sometimes and sometimes not. >
Could all be linked. Does she sometimes do a bit of puppy chewing on your hand, versus grabbing your hand harder/bitey behavior?
>Nothing stuck in her mouth, I did have to pull/pry the upper baby canine tooth on Weds and plan on having the vet check that when we go in for the spine x-ray to make sure it didn’t break off when I removed it.>
Yes definitely! And to keep all things happy and fun with you, have someone else pull her teeth LOL!
If you do repeat the tapping, grab some video!
Nice work here, keep me posted!Tracy
