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Hi!
>>I am a little unsure about my next steps. I did 2 more zig zag sessions with Wink and she did FANTASTIC. She looked so much more confident on the first rep. I will get a video tomorrow and send.>>
Yay! Total latent learning!
>>I am not sure what you mean by the comment below. Is this referencing the Zig Zags? What do you mean by playing around with the backsides?
I am glad she likes the new toy and is doing so well! You can start to play around with the backsides (lower the bars, though, and place the toy out past the landing spot rather than run with it, because she is going to leave you in the dust :))>>
Yes, it references the next step on the zig zags, which would be the backside zig zags:
You can also do the 3 jump zig zags but I think the backsides with 2 jumps will be better for the next step.
>>>>Keep bar at 12 and slight increase distance of jumps? Right now at 6’6″. Start with toy stationary and then move to moving. To help her out lower first bar to 8″.>>
I would leave the distance where it is now, that is her sweet spot 🙂 So 2nd the bar on the front side zig zags that you did here can stay at 12 and the first bar can go down to 8, to warm her up. When you move to the backside zig zags, you can start at 8 to teach her the concept then after a cople of sessions, move the bars up to 10 then 12.
>>Also, I am not sure what you were referencing when talking about the head turns? You reference a bar so I don’t think I used a bar on the click for head turn around the stanchion. Are we talking about two different things or are you referencing the Zig Zag exercise?
The head turn was interesting – she is pushing herself out on those turns to shape the turn by moving further from the wing rather than right towards it. If a bar was there, she would be on trhe far side of the bar! I scrolled back to look at what she was doing in earlier sessions, and she was a little closer coming in to the wing on the left turns and a LOT closer coming in on the right turns So she might need a little chiro adjustment or trigger point massage? In terms of training, you can start her closer to the wing just to re-visit that first step of getting close to the wing, but I would wait to make sure she was not out or sore anywhere – she might be changing her position to compensate.>>It was on this training video:
Where she was no running directly towards the wing, but instead she was pushing out really far away from it. So the bar reference was about it was a full jump with a 4 or 5 foot bar and you were asking her to wrap a wing, she would not be close to the wrap wing but instead she would be setting herself up on the far side of the jump bar (if there was a jump bar there :))
Let me know if that makes sense!
TracyHi!
Ah yes, this first video totally answers my question about whether he will tug outside or not… he was fabulous! His commitment looked really great and you can definitely move away sooner.
I think you can also go to a taller barrel or laundry basket, to simulate how we will be transferring to a wing pretty soon 🙂
>>. I can see some tug mechanics I can improve on, like not trying to walk and move him into position while he’s tugging that encourages him to let go.>>
Yes – you can keep it lower. When you keep it lower, he will move with you (while tugging) back to a starting position. He offered a lot of downs – is that something he does a lot? I was trying to figure out why he was doing it LOL! Maybe it is highly rewarded? Maybe he was tired? Maybe he wanted to go go go rather than reset? Let me know what you think. I am tempted to add in a SUPER BORING cookie for the reset for the next rep, and then the fast fun moving toy for the reward.
>> On the last rep – Oh yeah! I’m supposed to reward across the body LOL.>>
Ha! No worries! You were very connected so it all worked really well.
The blinds looked SUPER strong, he easily found the new side and you were connected really well. Nice rewarding too! Also, gold star for a strong stay 🙂 Yay! You can bring the blinds to the connection sandwich now that we did in the live class – try it outdoors with more room to run run run 🙂
Rear crosses are hard indeed, because the timing has to be so early. You were late 🙂 and that is why he turned the wrong way 🙂 Ideally, you would be fully crossed behind him when he is still at least one maybe 2 strides from the prop.
So how do we get that to happen? Start much further back 🙂 Start at least 15 feet away from the prop, and you should be next to him to start. Do a bit of the back and forth that you started with here, but at that big distance. Then when he is happy with that, you can start moving forward – when he is about halfway to the prop, you can cut in behind him and continue moving to the prop on the other side, which should give him plenty of time to make the adjustment.
You did a fabulous job rewarding him, but the cutting in behind him for the RC was happening after he was arriving at the prop, so he was not able to make the adjustment.
>>He is VERY handler focused and is looking at me rather than driving ahead.>
Actually…. I am happy with his focus forward on the prop! He was looking at the prop on almost all of the reps, only looking at you after he got there an you praised. There were only one or two times where he looked at you and asked a question before the prop, but that was hen you were starting too close to the prop and putting too much pressure on hi sline, so he was not sure if he should go forward to it or not.
>>Also you said on the LIVE that we should be thinking about verbals. I never really trained much in the way of verbals for Gabby (just ran with her all the time) and with Eli and Rudy that wasn’t a thing. Can you give me some suggestions on what cues I should be using for some of these moves?>>
Nowadays, there are a TON of verbals! But in order to prevent the handlers from stressing LOL we prioritize them. You are already working the go go go in toy races. So now we can start devleoping wrap verbals. It is your decision about which style you want, because you will need two wrap cues:
wrap-to-me and wrap-away-from-me
or
wrap-to-the-left and wrap-to-the-right.I use noises for them, some people use short sharp words like chechecheck and digdigdig. We will be talkin more about these in coming weeks so you don’t need to decide right now 🙂
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi1
The zig zags looked really good! She was powerful and confident! My only suggestion is to have her closer to the start wing and a few inches further from the bar – she was ticking bar 1 on takeoff a few times, and I think it was just because she was too close.
You can raise the bars a little more on this one!She did well on the organizers but with the added speed and room and different footing… the blue square is a little too small and also might be a little harder to see against the blue floor.
I think she might have also had some questions about the release: after the sit and you released her, you were praising her a lot and moving away, so it is possible she thought you were going to reward her? So no praise til she finishes the jump 🙂 and be sure to handle the turn to help her commit.
>> I’m pretty sure it’s because I disconnected before she took jump 2, so she thought we were gonna race? I was trying hard to be on time & smooth, but I don’t think I managed it. >>
Bummer about the bar on the run!
On time? Yes!
Smooth? Heck yeah!So I think the issue was your position: as you lead out, released, and started the turn, everything about your motion forward and position told her to go to the purple jump behind you. So then when she took off a :10 even though you were fully finished ith the FC, she didn’t see the motion towards 3 til she was in the air. So she tried to adjust, but ended up pulling the bar.
To help her out, you can be moving towards 3 the whole time – so when she lands from 1, she sees you heading to 3 and adjuts before takeoff for 2. You can lead out to 3 and do a FC (old school lead out pivot), or you can lead out on the landing side of 2 near the jump and do a lead out push with your fet and shoulders facing 3, or run into a blind near 3. That should get a great turn – trust her to take 2 so you can positionally be near 3 🙂Great job on the rest of it, it looked awesome!!!
TracyHi!
Yes, now that Changste saw more action in this game, she had a harder time getting into the sit. So for now, you can keep the higher energy level and more speed… but reward her for sitting on the plank in position (rather than release and reward). Do a session or two or that, with a few days in between to allow latent learning to kick in. Then if she is getting the idea, you can make the reinforcement more variable: sometimes reward her in position for the sit, sometimes release and reward after she wraps the jump.Great job!!
TracyHi!
She did really well here! Nice!!!! Yes, my only suggestion is to place the toy so yo ucan keep moving and so you don’t have to stand still to throw. If the toy is too challenging, maybe try the Manners Minder? You will want to keep the angles between the jumps pretty open til you figure out what to use as the placed reward, then you can easily tight them up 🙂
Nice work! Let me know what you think! And I bet Changtse will LOVE nosework, and it will be a great balance for agility!
Tracy
This is so awesome to see! He was such a good boy! The leash was definitely a little less predictable in terms of where it was… but he was still searching for it more and offering those arousal errors less. YES!!! Very cool! And you certainly had excellent leash placement from the leash runners LOL! I have a few more ideas percolating for you now that the in-person brain camp is over, so stay tuned!
T
Hi!
Thanks for your patience!Looking at the zig zags… I think what we see in these 2 sessions is latent learning in action. The first session from 11/29 definitely shows her having questions when she is jumping left to right (you are on her right shoulder, s you noted). But the 12/1 sessions shows that pretty much cleared up and looking much much better! And on the “easy” side, on the 11/29 session she definitely had to work at it… but on 12/1 it seemed much more effortless! Yay!
So only a couple of suggestions –
She probably needs a couple of warm up reps with bar 1 lower than bar 2, to get organized, then you can go to bar 1 being the same height.And, trust the latent learning process: if the rep is not great… reward it anyway. The science supports that a whole lot 🙂 because it turns out that what we see during the session doesn’t really matter all that much, because the dog’s brain wires it in duing the sleep after the session. So we want it to be a feel-good session even if the mechanics are not perfect! And the voila! Great mechanics percolate 🙂
I am glad she likes the new toy and is doing so well! You can start to play around with the backsides (lower the bars, though, and place the toy out past the landing spot rather than run with it, because she is going to leave you in the dust :))
The head turn was interesting – she is pushing herself out on those turns to shape the turn by moving further from the wing rather than right towards it. If a bar was there, she would be on trhe far side of the bar! I scrolled back to look at what she was doing in earlier sessions, and she was a little closer coming in to the wing on the left turns and a LOT closer coming in on the right turns So she might need a little chiro adjustment or trigger point massage? In terms of training, you can start her closer to the wing just to re-visit that first step of getting close to the wing, but I would wait to make sure she was not out or sore anywhere – she might be changing her position to compensate.
I think we might be seeing a bit of that compensating on the organized sits sessions – not on the plank, she looked great on those! It was more on the wing wrap before it – she was not bending through the ribs or neck as much as she had in the past. So if she has an appointment coming up with a chiro or PT, let me know if they feel anything a little sore or out.
But for the planks – she looked good! You can add a reward target on the exit of the wrap so she can keep her head down more and look at you less 🙂 It can be a manners minder, it can be a food bowl that you plop food into, or a toy. The reward target will help things be less ‘meh’ haha! We kinda needed the meh at first to get the mechanics, now we can make it more exciting 🙂
Nice work! Let me know what you think! I am going to post about a class continuation option in a few minutes.
Tracy
Good morning! Hope you had a great weekend!!
The wing wrapping at the beginning looked great: he was quickly able to go from the flat laundry basket to the popped up basket to the longer distance. He appears to be a righty because he could process the right turns as a distance more easily than the left turns at a distance. So, as we add more challenge and excitement to the wrap games, try to always start with the right turns to get the concept tarted. And you will probably see him progress more quickly through the steps on the right turns while the left turns and lag a step or two. It all balances out, so it is fine if one side proceeds more quickly than the other.
Only one suggestion: try not to say Go because Go will mean something entirely different very soon 🙂 So what to say instead? You can just use ready ready and let him offer.
And, you can also now go to the turn and burn game, where you can step to the barrel and point to it to indicate the game starts without needing to say go. We will put wrap verbals on this skill soon.
His retrieve is showing big improvements! He was able to be joyous and playful with the toy and still bring it back relatively quickly for the other toy reward. Yay! That is what we want: to keep shaping the retrieve without losing that joyous bounce in his step when he is playing. More sessions like this in this relaxed style will result in a really great retrieve.
His backing up is also looking good. Towards the end, you had your hands a little lower so he could keep his head in that neutral position (not too high, not too low) and he was able to really nicely step backwards! He had a little trouble when the treat got too far behind you so putting the cot on its side to help narrow the playing field was helpful.
So he can move to the next step on this too: keeping your hands on the position (top of your thighs) you had them at the end, and using the cot behind you for when he comes forward, y can start backing up onto a
‘Thing’ like a flat bed. Start with all 4 feet, lure the front feet off then reward him for stepping his front feet back onto it, so he gets the idea of the destination. Then you can move to luring all four feet off to start having him step back onto it with his back feet.Great job here!!! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
>>I was so happy with her willingness to work this out and wait for the cookie.
Yes, she was great! She did well getting all four feet on the plank, in the new location outdoors. Super!!
One suggestion: while he is working it out, you need to stand still 🙂 No helping! LOL!! When you start to move about, even a little, she starts to ask questions: should I look at da momma? Or at the plank? So be perfectly stationary til she offers something, then reward. If she gets stuck, you can toss a cookie off to the side to reset her to try again.
This will help her focus on her task and also not wait for you to cue anything with movement.Great job on all of these!! She is doing so well!!!!
Tracy
Hi!
She looked great here! Good retrieves!
>> In our agility field she will sometimes make a loop before she brings it back – not really running around the field but just sort of one big loop.>>
No worries about that short victory lap – most dogs need to do that bit sometimes, so that they can decompress a bit and come back for the next rep.
And yes, try to keep the toy lower so she can pull on it more and shift her weight into her rear. But overall, the retrieves looked great! Keep making it super fun for her like you did here 🙂 Yay!
T
Hi!
The ‘yes’ marker works for the hand delivery stuff like in the backing up… but tossed treats need a different marker so yes, totally use the get it marker (and keep tossing the treats).I think to help her get the correct direction, you need to start further back so you can cut in behind her much sooner. For comparison:
Look at the very last rep at 1:18, where you started the rear cross and cutting behind pretty early, and she got it. You were pretty much done with the RC before she arrived at the hat.Compare that to :48, for example – she was just about touching the hat before you started cutting behind her (she was touching it and turning to her left, because you were still on her left).
The timing is the key on the RCs, so more room gives you more time to show her: ideally you are fully finished with the RC side change while she is still one full step away from the prop.
But, as instructed: you rewarded ALL the things because she was correct 100% of the time (even if you were not sure she was correct… she was indeed correct :)) Yay! All of that reward will help her be resilient to handling errors if we even make any, and also it helps her understand that the little bit of RC starting should indicate the turn the new direction.
>>I don’t want her to rehearse those spins but by the time I see that she is committed I am late in getting the reward in front of her
You were not late with the reward, because the reward throw does not create the behavior. You were late with the cue (which creates the behavior). So don’t worry about the reward timing, just try to get the RC started much sooner.
>>When should I throw it?
As soon as you cut in behind.
>>Should I say get it as I throw it?
Yup – get it is the better marker for this game.
Nice work! Let me know if that makes sense!
TracyGood morning!
I agree, this went really well! She did well with you relatively close to the bed so she only had to take a step or two. To start to add more distance, one thing you can do is have less room on both sides of the bed – you can put it up against a wall on one side and maybe put a crate or open on the other side, to narrow the playing field a little so she won’t step off the side when you move a little further away.
>>I thought I was being much better with reward timing and placement and sometimes I think I was, but in looking at the video I could be faster with it.>>
I thought you were good! You can have the cookies ready to go in the hand rather than having to pick the cookie out of the other hand, but overall you were fast for what the session needed – it is not a high energy movement so you didn’t need to be higher energy or faster. If you were going faster, she might get a bit frantic and lose her form. Your pace of reinforcement matched the situation really nicely!
>>I will get there and I think that will make things better for her.
She appeared to be happy with what was going on and not frustrated at all! So no need to try to go faster here.
>>Should my marker word come before I give the treat?>>
Yes, you would say the marker then move the cookie hand, which is basically what you were doing here.
>>Should my marker word come as she starts to step backwards or as she lifts her foot to put on the bed?>>
This can be variable: sometimes for that first step, sometimes for all the way back to the bed. But always toss the reward to the bed. Mix it up, as that will help her add more distance in a gradual way.
Great job!
TracyHi again!
More fun arousal work! I just love this. Look at how she was able to get stimulated with the toy and still maintain her body awareness and balance – even when she was clearly in a heightened state with more ,muscle tension. Just be sure that you don’t get heightened and move too quickly with the cues: when you wanted her to spin, your hands movements were sometimes too high and fast so she couldn’t process the cue. When you were using a slower and lower movement, she was perfect. So be sure that your cue remains super clear while she is up in that optimal (high!) arousal state 🙂
She had trouble with the down on the object and a little trouble with the down on the flat… good to know! We will work that skill separately as well. And, I bet latent learning will kick in here too and if you revisit the high arousal downs, she will be better able to do them.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
Yay, barrel wraps in arousal! She is a lefty, I believe. Note how all of the left turns were just fantastic! You had good distance going and she had zero question: she was able to immediately go to the barrel and wrap to her left.
The wraps to the right was ever-so-slightly-harder and she ha a couple of “wait, what?” moments like at the start and then midway through the session. She finds it harder to process the rights turns, which is fine because dogs all do have a sidedness just like humans 🙂
So a strategy for working the barrel wraps in arousal (which was FABULOUS):
Move to the turn and burn game, but do the session ONLY on the left turns (she starts on your right on all reps).
The take a break. And do the back-and-forth game like you did here, starting on your left (so she turns right) but you will be very close to the barrel and not moving as much. You can warm up fro a few reps like that, and probably then go to the turn and burn, but at a much simpler level (standing still longer) than you did on the left turns.
The right turns will catch up to the left turns, but for now we will keep them a little separate so she can process.
And, it doesn’t really matter how it looks in that session so it if looks like crap? Cool! No worries at all, because these pointy creatures are amazing with the latent learning – even if a session looks poopy, keep rewarding and helping the dog and then the behavior will appear in the next session.
Working this in arousal is great because the science tells us that when the dogs encode/learn in this state, they will be better able to remember/retrieve the skill when they are in this state! And she will be stimulated at trials, which basically means she is going to be high, and aroused… and still able to produce amazing turns. It is cool to have the science on this and then see it play out with our dogs! Yay!
Great job!
TracyGood morning Deb! Hope you had a great weekend!
>>There was a disc dog event outside and Tarot was really distracted by the people coming in and out of the building and the sound of the electronic voice over the PA system.>>
Oh yes, that would be really hard for any dog! Even in a familiar building, she would definitely notice those distractions. Good for you for recognizing that it was hard for the baby dog!
With that in mind… she was a superstar here!!!
Warming up with the tugging was great. And then you did really short distances and LOTS of cookie rewards, also great!
If the tugging is more exciting, you can add it in after every cookie or two. You were really good about giving her the moment to look at the environment and choose to engage with you – that really builds great engagement and resilience! And you were patient when she ‘needed a moment’ like at 2:25 when she needed about 5 seconds to clear her head and sniff. You quietly let her do it, then she was able to re-engage without being asked and she finished STRONG!!!! YES! So in hard environments, you can let her have that little head-clearing moment – she was not being naughty she was just saying “whoa this is hard, ok now I am good, let’s go!”
Plus, I think the cookies on the ground lower her arousal a little o the toys will keep her more stimulated which is great for handling the distractions. In easier environments, you can do a bunch of cookie rewards in a row. But in the harder environments, you can tug after each cookie reward or after every 2 or 3 cookie rewards, to keep her more stimulated and help her to handle the distractions.
And in a less distracting environment, you can start to add even more distance for her to then run back to you for the decel.
I think you made really fabulous choices here for your baby dog and it really set her up for success. It was a true demo in how to train a behavior while supporting the needs of a youngster in a distracting environment. Big Click/treat for you!!!!
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
