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I wasn’t planning on layering to the dogwalk but it just worked. We had some other issues. He had great contacts.
Hi!
The blind in the opening worked well in terms of support the stay! Pulling away to layer the tunnel was what contributed to the bar of 3 coming down, so definitely show him that again. You can also lead out a bit less and to see if more momentum into and out of the blind helps him get the line into the layer there.
He has nice contact stops! So the next phase is to keep running and not slow down as he is doing them
Definitely reward him for taking the jump instead of the tunnel in the 10-11 section. Tunnel- jump discriminations are really hard and he didn’t understand it that well… and didn’t get rewarded. Rewards in that section will go a long way to teaching him what you want there – those are popular discriminations nowadays.The switch was one step too soon so pushed him off the jump before the teeter. Nice job calling him before the tunnel! Then jump stay strongly connected between the last two jumps, so that he can see the line. You were looking forward and not at him, so he came with you 🙂
Nice work!
TracyHi!
Welcome back! I am excited to see more of him!
Yes, having a plan to get him off the teeter will definitely help! Jamie lifting him off was very helpful and also you can slowly turn him around with a cookie lure, or put a table next to it to help him jump off onto. If you are alone, you can do this on a lower teeter so it is easier to get him to turn around and come off safely. He is a bit of a stunt man 🙂 , so be sure to get him to move slowly on this and not rush for now – we can add speed later. When he was going up the plank to Jamie, you can be next to him with a cookie in front of him so he doesn’t try to go fast yet 🙂
Nice work here!!
TracyHi!
Welcome back! I am looking forward to more Caper TV!!
This game went really well. I think after some of the treats she took a moment to remember to move to next jump (especially the middle jump) – no worries, she was figuring it out and having you closer totally helped. And you gave her just en0ugh connection to tell her which line you wanted, while still being nicely lazy LOL!! Give her maybe one more session on this game, then add in more distance and the next steps 🙂
Great job!
TracyHello and welcome! I am excited to see you here!
>>I’m not sure how the format works. Are we supposed to work through all of the week 1 games before the first live class?>>
You can work on these games at your own pace throughout the week. The first live class (next week) is an entirely different set of games – the folks who registered for the live spots will work them during the live session, and then they will be posted for you and the other online working participants to try and post here in the Forum.
have fun!
TracyHi!
Welcome back! I am excited to see more of Baxter!!
>>so it is on me to keep our sessions short, which I have a hard time doing LOL.
It is cracking me up how so far folks are mentioning how hard it is to keep sessions short! All of our phones have timers on them… set the timer and live by it LOL!!
Looking at the first video:
This is going well! I agree that finding the the treats in the grass was the hardest part. It is a game you can do on your mats indoors! He figured it out pretty quickly but it was hard to know how to keep moving when he was looking for the treats. You can add more distance indoors- and maybe even use weave poles as jump bars, which will give you more room between jumps indoors.Great job!!!
TracyHello and welcome back! She is at such a fun age now!!!!!
>>as it’s been really easy to train too much, for too long, since she just wants to keep going!>>
Always set a timer and when it says you are done… you are done. Don’t train without one!
have fun!
TracyHello!
This is looking really good – easiest game ever according to Saphira!!! Just be sure to have a little bit of connection so after she eats the treat and looks up at you, she can see the line (and not come to you). Yo can definitely add more distance and now and go to the next steps! Yay!!
Great job 🙂
TracyOops, I missed this one. Sorry!!!
I think on the first send she didn’t realize it was a cue to start 🙂 So you can warm her up with forward sending, then give her a little ready ready moment – then send. Once she was not the game, she understood to go to the barrel.
She did really well here when she saw you shift connection from her eyes to the barrel, following you hand as it pointed there. She was consistently finding the barrel on the first send. Yay! She was not consistently finding it on the 2nd one, when you did 2 in a row. What was happening on those was that you were changing the toy from hand to hand and then hugging it to your chest (which draws her attention to the toy) and that made the connection shift from her eyes to the barrel exit not as clear. So either leave the toy in the same hand the whole time, or stick in it your pocket so you don’t switch it around 🙂 The way you can show a really clear connection shift and she will nail that 2nd send.
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
This is a really fun course – lots of good course trends to work on!!Firt sequence: Opening looked really good, nice wrap before the tunnel! The tunnel-tunnel layering section looked good – before he goes into the first tunnel, you can be telling him to go go go then tunnel tunnel tunnel so he knows to look forward when he exits. You got quiet and he hesitated until you said tunnel after he exited.
Teeter layering looked good!
The 2nd sequence picked up on the layer to the teeter- without as much momentum, be sure to tell him about the teeter before he takes off for the panel jump.
He had a question on the jump after the teeter – based on your position, he thought the wrap was back to the tunnel. Since he seems very confident and independent on the teeter, you can move away more laterally before even cuing the wrap jump, so that he sees the line to the next jump based on your position and motion (and it takes the tunnel out of the picture).
Very nice job layering to find the tunnel under the dog walk! That is a SUPER useful skill nowadays!!!
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
Look at you – clear round! Super!!! She looked good jumping 20 and it is more forgiving on her body for sure! You had really nice connection throughout and she looked confident!!Question about the contacts: Do you have to slow down with her, or will she stop if you keep moving? So far I am bugging all of the FF people to keep moving and not stop with the dog on the contact LOL!! If she needs you to put the targets out on the ground so she can learn to stop as you keep running, that is great! Being able to run past the contacts or be laterally away from them will really help you get to great spots on course!
For example, you can get a smooth line from 6-7-8 (the line after the DW if you can leave her on the dog walk and be more lateral. And if you can leave her on the a-frame, you can send to the backside after it (10) and get ahead for 11-12, allowing you to decelerate into the FC at 12 so she can collect more. Practicing with the targets there will really help.
Nice switch to the teeter! Then if you can leave her on the teeter and get ahead, you will be able to smooth out the ending line by handling it from further ahead, and calling her sooner before she goes into the tunnel 🙂
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
The handling on the jumping/tunnel sections is looking really good, so to practice that, a couple of behavior things to help her out:
>>Reaction time when things got hot on the start is still a challenge for me. Atleast the first time. I was able to atleast have a plan the second time.>>
I think for now – just take out any start behavior and begin someplace in the opening where you can send and run.We are woking the start line separately, no need to put it on course right now. On this course, you can just slingshot her at 4 and run run run. There is just too much failure on the start lines and you are getting frustration behavior. We don’t want it to become a source of tension so for now, just remove it from the equation for now.
With the contacts – also too much failure here. For course work runs, use targets when you are running courses so that she does not fail and is not told she is wrong (and so you don’t have the dilemma to what to do if she is not correct). That way she can be correct and fast.
For the handling – try to break this down to 3 or 4 obstacle sessions on your first time through it, so you can run with connection and add more reinforcement into the jump sections. You were running for your life (relatable LOL!) so while you were great about staying in motion, she didn’t get a lot of connection or reinforcement (then ended up on a contact that when slightly awry too)
Then after you get the 3 or 4 obstacles, turn it into maybe 10 obstacles (without the stay and with targets on the contacts, or whatever aid you used to train them). And reward reward reward before it goes wrong 🙂 That will allow you to work the connection and lines! And then you’ll see that it is relatively easy to put the whole thing together (starting without a stay in a place where it makes sense to send and go, and with targets on the contacts).
I don’t mind having targets in for now, because as you mentioned – it is really hard to set up the flow if the contacts go awry! And I don’t want to tell her she is wrong, but I also don’t want to tell her she is right to not do the contact behavior 🙂 So the easy answer is to help her out and get success with the targets 🙂 Then it will be very easy to fade them out as you keep that really nice flow!
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
Nice work here!A general observation:
I think in practice you tend to run parallel to her when ideally you would run ahead or laterally. This is especially true on the contacts (more below) so it is changing the lines you run. Rehearsing that might mess things up at trials, when you will need to be ahead or she is moving faster or bothOpening line –
The lead out worked well on the first rep! Very nice!!The shorter lead out would mean a RC on takeoff side of 3 to get the line – you did it on t he landing side, but you were not quite far enough area so she spun.
She also had a little question on the line from the DW to the frame: The jump at :23 (jump after the DW) is a serp you turned your shoulders forward so she didn’t read the 2nd part of it and had a question. It was smoother on the 2nd rep but you can be more laterally away from the DW and so you can get the backside and show the serp arm/shoulders there.
The A-frame exit at :31 was confusing – you decelreated then moved towards her, then said good and she released. At 2:08 you rotated towards her and then moved forward so she released but did a zig zag – caused an extra step to the backside for you. Just keep handling and either release to the next jump or throw a reward back to her.
I think the confusion on the frame delayed the send to the backside at 10 . Be sure to turn your shoulders so that she knows it is a right turn not a RC at :36 rather than step in. You had a great shoulder turn on the next rep:
Really nice a 2:12!!You can add in some decel into the FC at 12 so she collects, to get a tighter turn there.
OK, let’s talk about contacts. There was the decel and moving towards her on the a-frame, and you did the same thing on the teeter – decelerated, rotated towards her, stepped towards her then released on motion which would explain why she thought she should release the frame.
I think you are doing all 3 contacts: decelerating, rotating towards her, then trying to rotate back to the line. Ideally you would keep moving – is this decel because she might not stop? If so, put targets back out on the contact bottoms so you can help her stop while you continue to drive through the handling.
Hanging out at the teeter bought you the off course jump at :49 and at 2:23 you totally stepped to it. Reward her or continue, she was correct – no stopping without reinforcement (very frustrating for her and she rehearsing barking at you and being in front of you after the first stop there) . The ideal handling would be to leave her at the teeter and drive past the tunnel entry, so a target for the teeter end position will really help!
One other small detail – when saying go on the last line, say it to her (more connection, even if she is ahead :)) and not to the jump so that she gets the connection and makes the line smoother.
Nice work here! Let me know what you think, especial about the general observation of staying too close to her line especially at the contacts 🙂
Tracy
