[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!

Thanks for the teeter info:

>>The teeter – no issues with the end games – bang or the noise. In between Max Puppy sessions, I was going to do the Independent Study teeter class. I did the elevator up to nowhere and she does not like that AT ALL. She would not get on the board again. I had to go back to a flat board in the basement and work my way up to getting any incline – it took a couple of weeks. I went back to using 2 tables – a 24 and a 16 and initially, I let her go back and forth since she was offering going up. Then I got to a 24″ table and like an 8″.>>

This is interesting – How did she do on the Mountain Climbers and teeter table games before it? And was she worried about the very beginning of the elevator game when the board is very low? Usually if the Mountain Climbers, teeter-tables game and Elevator part 1 are all strong, then the bigger elevator games should not be a shock to the system for the dogs. (Unless you meant she was worried about the Mountain Climbers and not the elevator game?)

>> As you can see, she thinks quite a lot about it. I use food at the end.

Yeah, she is doing it but not really having the time of her life doing it 🙂

>>Toys were too much – she could not stop.

Toys as the target, meaning she would not do a 2o2o? What if you used a toy between cookies, to keep things more interesting for her? I am not fully convinced the food is a great positive reinforcement here so a little excitement will help with that.

>>To keep a clean loop, I either circle her back and run or send her around a cone and run back.

To keep to super clean and SUPER fun (because the fun means less over-thinking and more excitement/value in the game), try to loop it in such a way that you never need to tell her she is wrong if she tries to begin the game – that happened twice here, which is a pretty high failure rate on such a short session. I mean, she doesn’t really love to do it in the first place so we definitely don’t want to dampen it further by telling her she is wrong when she actually might want to do it LOL! So avoid the issue of the broken stay entirely by changing the loop – if she might break the stay while you put the cookies down or lead out, have her either way on a mat or have her hanging off a tug or chasing her hollee roller toy while you do that – then when the food is in, you can get her on the table and directly into the game, no telling her she is wrong so there are no icky feeling associated with the teeter whatsoever.

When using food as the reward for dogs that don’t love food, I always build toy play into the loop – it brings more value to the session overall and it builds the value of the food as well. There are plenty of ways to do it. For example, you can throw a hollee roller for her to chase, place the food on the target, call her back to the table, reward for bringing the HR back, on the table, into the game, eat the food, throw the hollee roller.

The other reason to use a toy and let her move away from the table/teeter between reps is that it completes the stress cycle. She finds this stressful but keeping her AT the teeter, even if it is only for 4 reps, does not allow her to complete the stress cycle immediately so the icky feelings remain. The neuroscience tells us to let the dogs complete that stress cycle with a quick runabout with the toy or tugging or at the very least…. moving away from the teeter (negative reinforcement supports this as well). Plus, the toy mixed in with food puts her in a more optimal arousal state (Yerkes-Dodson) for the difficulty of this task – which is good because she will think about it a little less (but understand the stopping better than when it was just a to and no food).

On the video – the big lines here are looking good! It is good to know she is processing the verbals for the tunnel exits!! What a difference between the first rep (no verbal) and the left verbal on the 2nd rep! Nice!!!!

The reps where you are on the takeoff side of 3 set the line 4-5 a little better here based on how 4-5 are set up. To get a better turn on the 4 jump when you did the blind on the landing side, you can stay closer to the 3 jump and don’t run as much to the 4 jump – your running line will basically be close to 3 then directly to 5. That way when she lands from 3, you are already turned and heading to 5, so she will set up a good turn. When you ran towards 4, she thought you wanted a straight line after 4, which is why you got the wider turns and the dropped bar on the 2nd to last rep.

Great job here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!

These are good skills to work on with the girls! They did well!

Seq 1 with Mali:
She was providing excellent feedback about the cues here! All of her behavior is rewardable here because she was mirroring the cues and timing.

I think what was happening was that the RC cue was not distinct enough from the other cues, so she was questioning which one you wanted. When your shoulders & arm pulled to the center of the bar and you moved forward towards the opposite wing for just the right amount of time, she would get it (like at :15, :50). But if you were too early she would flip away (:05 and :24) or too late, she thought you wanted the backside (:35 and :44). And then when you wanted the shoulder turn to the tunnel at 1:02, she was not sure because that same shoulder turn looked like the RC cues.

So we can smooth it out with a slight tweak to the RC cues here: decelerate at jump 3 til she is approaching it, and turn your shoulders to the center of the RC jump (4) – as she is jumping 3, accelerate to the center of the bar without any big arm cues (just motion). That center-of-the-bar motion is only used for RCs, so that should answer her questions. And then as she is driving to the bar, just before takeoff, you cut in behind her (and you will be ahead again when she lands).

And that will also be distinctly different from the post turn to the tunnel because you will be further from 3 and turning away, so it looks really different. from the RC cues.

And no worries about the extra jump before the tunnel after the FC – it was on her line so she was correct. The FC looked great!!!

Seq 2 with Lit’L Bit – she was doing it all very nicely but I think her thought bubble said “HUMANS ARE NUTS WHY AM I GOING SO FAR AWAY AFTER A REAR CROSS” hahahaha! So, you cna help her be more convinced by adding in more rewards for the big go line after the RC. She was reading it all beautifully but was a little slower because there was a TON of distance. The high outside arm to keep her on the line to the jump before the tunnel really helped!
After the tunnel, I find that the added connection really helps like what you did at :56 and 1;14. She is convinced the layer jump was a serp if you didn’t do the big connection. When you are running past the jump, you can try a ‘closed’ shoulder and a big disconnection to help her run past it – you can work that layering skill in isolation with a placed reward so she sees the difference between the layer cues and the serp cues.

Seq 3 w/ Mali – she did well reading the rear crosses here too! On the tight wrap rear, you needed more transition from acceleration to decel at :26 and :38 – you were accelerated so she stayed on her line. When you added a decel at :42 – nailed it!
The transition element from fast to slow is important to show her:
if you are moving the same speed, even if it is a decelerated speed the whole time, she doesn’t see it as a wrap cue so give her more acceleration before it then decelerate as you start the RC cues. This is also true for the RC in the opening when you send her away down the big line to the tunnel – a little more acceleration will help convince her and also throwing rewards will help her trust that she was correct to go that far from you 🙂

>> (I purposely left in the beginning clip where Mali is jumping on me – any ideas to help stop this behavior would be appreciated. She has improved – at least we have the beginning of a start line stay)>>

She is a feisty lady! It looks like she is stimulated/excited and doesn’t quite know what to do with herself in that moment, other than jump up and be grabby. So, you can give her other behaviors to do. I like to have the dogs put their front feet on my leg as I am getting ready, so they can just stand there and breathe (they do get cookies for it). Or if that is too hard, you can give her a bed or mat to wait on, then call her too you at the start line, then line up. Or, if she will tug on the toy – let her tug while you are getting ready – then she can ‘out’ the toy, line up, and go (or get the tug again as a reward). I do a lot of tug – sit-tug-sit games like this one, to help the feisty dogs be able to find a good outlet for their mouth but also be able to sit when asked and when in high arousal:

Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi! This was a really interesting session to watch!

>> I thought this would be pretty straightforward but it wasn’t!

Backside circle wraps are the hardest commitment in agility, so it is trickier than it looks 🙂 They rely on full countermotion and are very hard!

>>He was a bit better at committing to the wing when I did the second side.

I watched it a few times to see what was causing him to ask questions on the first side versus the 2nd side, and a couple of things were happening:

– one thing was that you were blocking the wing a bit (especially on the first side), so he had to go wider around your path to find it, which made it harder for you to move forward properly. You can see a bit of the wing blocking at 1:06 – 1:08. Ideally you would be over by the jump cups so he can see the whole wing. I think he could only see the outer edge of the wing here.

– also, he has a countermotion question: I think he was having trouble with the correct footwork (yours, not his haha) with the line of motion on the first side, and you changed it to compensate on the 2nd side (probably without realizing). Looking at the first side, where he is turning left: you were correct to be moving forward right behind him and no sideways or backwards steps as he was passing you. For example, :09 was correct footwork of moving forward but the pressure of it pushed him to the tunnel, and the footwork was also correct at :15 and :20 (he got it when you were correct moving more slowly at :20).
Compare that to the other side, after 1:32 for example – you were sending him past you then stepping backwards then forwards… that backwards step was what he was cuing off of to come around the wing. But that backwards step will put you in the way of the landing spot when we add a bar in and it will also delay you from getting up the line.

So we want you to be able to do what you wanted to do on the first couple of reps which was to move in right behind him and work the countermotion element. To do this:
– let him see the full wing
– move more slowly through the countermotion, partially so he can sort the commitment out and partially so you don’t step backwards or sideways trying to go fast 🙂
– throw a reward to the ‘landing’ side of the wing behind you to help increase the value of the countermotion

And you can also try to start with right turns instead of left turns – I *think* he is a righty? Most of the turns at the beginning were left turns, so you might be able to get the countermotion while you move forward more solidified on his easier side, then transfer to his harder side.

Let me know if this all makes sense 🙂 Nice work here!! I am sure we can convince him to do the countermotion here 🙂
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!
Lots of good work here, he is doing really well finding these lines and responding to the cues!

Nice job getting him to do the jump and and not the tunnel on the first warm up rep 🙂

Question – what does your lalalalala cue mean? I hear it on the 3-4-5 and the 14-15 lines. I think maybe it is a general jump cue? You might not need it the whole way through on those lines (more time to breath) and you can also accelerate more on those lines to both show the extension needed and get to the next parts sooner (more below).

First run, working the pieces:
On the 3-4-5 line, you can connect but run harder through there, with your shoulder a little less open and arm less back (it almost looked like a threadle arm). This is a good spot to just pump your arms and run, with your eyes on his eyes 🙂 That way you an get him on the line and show transitions in to the 6-7-8 turn and also be able to layer the 3-4-5 section to get to 6-7 even sooner!

Nice job getting him to turn out of the 10 tunnel and to 11 at :36 – you can ‘release’ the opposite arm and turn to the 12 tunnel a little sooner (bar down there) – basically as soon as you see him do the lead change to turn towards 11, you can bring the outside arm down and turn to 12.

Really good adjustment on the connection and line for the tunnel send to 13 at :40 (not strong enough, he went past it) versus :44 (very clear so he got it). Super!!!

The only real trouble spot on this course was the turn at 16 – I think you are doing the verbal but not showing the physical cue to support it, which is why he had questions. At :47, you had too much decel already on the 14-15 jumps (dropped 15 because the physical cue said turn but then you kept moving forward) then the dig dig verbal + turn was a full post turn at :50. At ;57 you moved more through that section – if it watch it without the sound, it totally looked like a slice so he was correct again 🙂 I think your dig dig is the wrap to the left, which he got more of at 1:05 but then your shoulders were open to the line he took, good boy.

So to get him wrapping to his left, drive hard 13-14-15 so you are closer to the wing of 16 before he takes off for 15. As he is taking off, do a big decel towards the 16 wing (which is when you can also add your dig dig verbal) and then rotate your feet to 17 – so as he is passing you to 16, your feet are already rotated and you can be moving towards 17. This transition (decel then rotation) should totally get the wrap on 16 to the backside of 17.

Full run – nice opening here! You ran with less arm back, more like a sprinter here- but also with good connection on the 3-4-5 line and he was really strong with finding the jumps and not the off course tunnel 🙂
Nice job getting the turn to 11 and then turning to 12 as well at 1:27 -1:29. Lovely!!! You got the right timing of seeing him turn to 11 and then sending to 12.

He still had some confusion at 16, but that is the transition – I think when that is sorted, you can have him do the slice backside at 17 (entering closer to 8 and exiting nearer to the weaves) because that will be an easier line. And he did well finding the weaves here! Yay!

Great job! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!

The lap turns are looking really strong!
Dog on left – this went well at the beginning! You had good patience and letting her get to your hand before starting to move back and moving your leg. You can extend the magic cookie hand more towards her before the release, so she has a clear focal point

And yes, be sooner when adding the tunnel, you should be in position and stationary with your arm extended before she exits – she smoked you on the first one then you got better and better, and earlier and earlier 🙂

Dog on right – yes, I agree that at the beginning yo were looking at her too much on the first rep but also you can add in the hand more extended towards her for a clearer “come to the hand” indication.

Also, you can delay your step back longer and also step straight back – when you moved your hand THEN stepped back, she was great (2:05 for example) if you moved the leg too soon, you ended up stepping sideways and she took the wrong side of the wing like at 1:39.
So letting her get almost all the way to the hand while you look at the hand… then do the hand moving back and foot moving back worked like a charm!
You had a lot of good reps at the end, including when you added the tunnel in on both side – nice!

Tandems:

I think there were a couple of things happening here that made things harder for her to read.

When she was taking the outside of the wing and not doing the tandem, your line of motion w/ feet & hips were heading to the wing – even just a little – so she was correct like at :30 and 1:42. Ideally, you feet would be facing straight forward on the line and not facing the wing at all, and several feet from the wing – this is more like what you did at 1:58. And keep moving – she was getting it when you stood still but we want her to also get it when you are moving.

Add in late verbals, so she was exiting the tunnel and did not know til after exiting that she needed to look for you – ideally, you would be calling her or using a directional before she went into the tunnel, rather than when she was in or exiting.

So call her starting when they are 6 feet from the tunnel, turn your feet totally straight past the wing, (don’t over-rotate back to her) and move forward slowly so she can see the upper body cues.

When working from a stay, you can show the hand cues before the release like at 1:28, but that is a small detail because you won’t often be seeing these from a standstill LOL!

>>Should I set the tunnels to point more to the inside of the wing to make it easier?

I don’t think so, I think calling her sooner will really help so she exits already turned.

>>Lap turn – do you ust one for this one? I’ve done lap turns that would be proper wing wraps and also that would be a left/right type of turn so would it just be the word that you would use for the shape of the turn that matches best?>>

Lap turns are always threadle/wraps, so I use my threadle wrap verbal. If something else is needed that I cannot physically cue, I might add another directional to it as well, but that is only for insanely complex sequences.

>>Tandem Turn – Similar question – do you use a verbal for this one?>>

Tandems are used in a wider variety of situations so it depends on the situation -it might be for a RC, so I use a directional for the jump. Or they might be used for threadle wraps, or for a ‘switch’ on the flat, so the verbal would depend on the specific cnotext.

>>There you mentioned using a high single off arm for the threadle slice held in position, and two arms for the threadle 360 wrap one high one low also held in position.>>

Yes, or dog-side arm pulled back for the threadle slice.

>>For the tandem turn I have used a low off arm and then as they pass me do a flip of that hand – does that still make sense with the hand use on the threadles? I think it does but wanted to check.>>

yes, it makes sense, because tandems have much in common with threadle wraps 🙂

Nice work here!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!

>>I am back, I did give Grizzly a break, and then I went to the UKI Cup. Lots of learning, the courses were really hard with skills that we have not trained for, lots of layering and off courses.>>

I saw the courses – it looked like the judge made a list of every hard challenge he could think of, and put them in all the courses LOL! And yes, layering is a requirement nowadays with UKI and so is big distance and navigating around off courses 🙂

>>Courses where so intense it required 100% concentration from #1 to the last obstacle. And on top of it I had one of those months where the menopause was giving me a horrible migraine that lasted till Saturday.>>

Ugh! I am sorry to hear about the migraine, that definitely makes it so much harder 🙁

About the intensity of concentration – it is nearly impossible for our brains to be able to remember to do ALL the things for that length of time: connection, verbals, timing, running, handling moves (both the execution of them, and which one goes where), etc. But I have ideas for you to make it MUCH easier:

I have been doing a lot of work lately on human and dog brains and how they learn & remember, so I think the walk through practices here will really help! Basically, the course at a trial needs to be in your working memory: which move goes where to get through the course. That is really challenging – and also it means that everything else: connection, verbals, how to physically do each move, how fast you have to run) all need to be things that your brain does NOT need to actively think about, so your brain can devote all of her energy to the handling moves for the course.

If we can get the connections and pace and verbals etc into your procedural memory (meaning, your body has the procedure learned so well that you don’t need to think about it) then your handling moves will be much easier to execute for each and every course, all weekend. If you are executing the connection, timing, verbals, and handling all at the same time while running Griz? Something will go wrong with one of them because our brains cannot do all the things, all at once, all weekend.

I work on this brain stuff all the time, especially because I am running 4 dogs right now and my brain memory fills up really too fast haha!

So on these sequences, the goal is to be able to rehearse the stuff that needs to be 2nd nature (connection, verbals, pace of running, for example) to the point where you don’t have to think about it during the run, so all you need to think about is when/where to do the handling moves. So that is why I bug everyone about the connections and verbals and pace 🙂

Looking at the video: overall, they went really well!! The best runs were the ones where you were most confident in the handling moves and the most connected – which were generally the 2nd or 3rd reps, not the 1st rep. All the various handling choices worked out to be similar in time (yes, I timed them :)) so we can now look at how to get the excellence of the 2nd or 3rd run to be the first run 🙂 It is all about how our brains work!

Seq 1
In the walk through, at :05 add in more decel to your turn then rotate, rather than continue to move forward at the same pace with the outside arm up. The decel is the powerful part of the cue, plus it allows you to rotate sooner and get up the next line sooner. That, plus more verbals and more connection, can make the run much easier. I didn’t see a walkthrough for the BC to the spin, but that is definitely a place to also use lots of connection, verbals, and faster pace running.

On the runs – you are generally executing the runs well, but there are some oopsies here and there and I think it is because during the run, your brain is doing all the things for the first time: the handling, the connection, the verbals, the speed, etc. The BC to spin looked good – try to get the BC in sooner so you are not in his way when he lands from the 2nd jump (you will have to send to the barrel from further away to get to the BC sooner – it should be starting when he is lifting for 1, but it started when he landed from 1 here). The late blind is probably why it was a little slower than the FC to the right.
On the FC to the right, because you had not walked the decel into it, you deceled and rotated at the same time, so you ended up holding position for a moment to support the commitment – so he got the commitment but looked at you when he came around the wing, not sure of the next line. Decel then rotating will get a better turn on the jump and also will allow you to move back towards the #4 jump after it.

You played with the RC on #3 at :32 and :47 – this one also requires the transition into decel (all wraps require that transition) with the hand cues so you don’t have to pull away from the line as much to get it – you were so far away, you were not in the video anymore LOL! You did rehearse it without him a bit, but definitely this is a good move to rehearse more without him so it is all 2nd nature and you don’t have to think about it.

Seq 2:
On this one too, you can practice the walk through with more connection to where he will actually be so your brain is not finding him for the first time during the run. The 3 spots where you were looking ahead of where he would be were at 1:08 (landing of 2), 1:09 (landing of the 3 backside), at 1:12 (landing of the 5 after the spin). He would still be behind you in all of those spots 🙂 Emphasizing that connection will allow you to get the connection and timing to the point where you don’t have to think about it and you will do it naturally. That gives your brain more room to focus on the handling. and verbals (you were very quiet on your walk throughs here LOL!)

You got the connections and verbals on the run here and the run looked good! He had a little question going to the #5 backside, your rotation might have been a bit early so he was not sure if he should take it or not.

But keep working the connection and verbals in the walk through and with more speed – when you ran it differently to the slice of the backside, you had not rehearsed that and you can see where you brain was saying “wait a minute, I need to think about this!” LOL! At 1:35 you didn’t really connect after the blind and the send to the backside, so when you ran it you were having to do it for the first time so it was a bit off balance, plus the verbals all started to sound the same with pitch and rhythm – then at 5 you ended up on a different line and tried to fix it, but he had a question and ending up not lifting off properly at 1:48. It was better on the full run re-do, but he still had some questions (going around 2, a bit wider at 6 because there was not enough connection). This run was a good example of the brain trying to do to much, too fast, and not quite able to pull it off. If we make the connection and verbals automatic, the rest will be super easy. The connection might *feel* easy when you run it with him, but your brain is telling us that remembering connection is taking up energy that needs to be devoted to the harder handling moments.

Sequence 3 & 4:
The walk through for 3 was interesting – you were rehearsing the connection but it was more to a dog that would be very close to you and not behind you at the jump. So try to look back to the jump where he would be, and keep your arms in tight so the arms get in the habit of not flying out (one less thing for your brain to have to remember to do :))
You can see that on the run too – you were working hard to make the connections on the BC 2-3 and 4-5 but also switching the toy from hand to hand on the first one and getting the verbals out.
On seq 4 (I didn’t see a walk through) – the first run was clean and connected, but you can see yourself thinking about each piece of it so he was a bit slower 3-4, and you were not as clear with the wraps (you asked for less collection and you left them all a little later). I think the 2nd run was much better – faster, less thinking about what you needed to do, and better collection cues then acceleration down the last line. Nice!

So with both of these – try blasting around them with all the connections and verbals and handling and toy in your hand, but without him 🙂 The more you do that on these short courses, finding the critical connection points then working them at speed without him, the more the connection & verbals & low arms get embedded in your memory, so they come very naturally. You might not feel like you are thinking about them a lot now during the runs, but your brain has a bit of a delayed reaction time in some spots (and on bigger courses it becomes more obvious) – and that means your brain needs more of the procedure of connecting to be in your memory and not have to use energy to execute it.

Of course, working these skills with him also help get the connection to a pint where you don’t think about it actively, which is why the sequences went well even if the connections were not perfect in the walk through. But I will keep bugging you to be as perfect as possible in the walk through, as often as possible, so the connections and pace are more of a reflex to you and your brain can focus on the harder stuff line the handling moves for each course.

Great job here! Let me know if the brain ideas make sense!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

This video is hilarious! Good point about paying more attention if the drink was higher value. That beverage looked delicious, what was it? Your connection looked stunning, and honestly I have never seen you smile so much while handling LOL!!!!! It might have been the reinforcement value of the drink. Now I am thirsty LOL!

Ok, now it is time to go to a water bottle and add in Sprite, maybe on just a tunnel – jump line that is very simple. Then we can work our way back up to whatever this delicious beverage was LOL!!!!

In the high heat, I have done this with ice cream too, VERY fun and reinforcing for humans and dogs if you like vanilla or strawberry ice cream!!

Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!

I agree, it is fascinating to see how our connection helps the dog (or causes questions when we disconnect).
The Forum will be open for video review til Sept 15. Have fun on vacation!

Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!

Sounds like you are on vacation and that is great! Hope you have a relaxing, enjoyable time!!!

>>I have put a lot of effort into that behavior but if I hold his collar more than once or twice at the start of the run he starts standing a few feet away when it is time to start (not optimal). So I need a different version of start with me. Luring him next to me in “heel” position either gets stare at me or take off down the line – neither is what I want. I am thinking of training either a chest touch or chin rest start to use when I don’t want a start line (and until his start line is solid – any thoughts?>>

Bearing in mind that he is only in the 10-11 month range, these behaviors of not coming in close could also be a sign that things are too hard and/or there is not enough reinforcement (plus pre-existing icky feelings about it). He is in full-on adolescence where he wakes up each day to a brain & body that is different, so easing the pressure helps as does making training ridiculously simple for a while. I have found that adolescents will present these behaviors when things are too hard and easing up for a while magically eliminates the behaviors. So, if he goes once really well with the collar hold? Don’t ask for it again, take a break, then come back later for the 2nd part of your turn (I split turns for youngsters all the time). And, since there are existing icky feelings – you don’t want old icky feelings to then become an issue with new icky feelings. The joys of adolescent dogs 🙂

I think the luring is fine into heel position, but that is a ton of pressure for baby dogs who are already feeling the pressure simply by being in a ‘work’ environment, so I suggest lure to heel then feed the treat by tossing it away (to turn off the pressure, because the lure close to you might be negative reinforcement more than it is positive reinforcement).

Chest touch and chin rest are often too much pressure for baby dogs, particularly because of the physical contact and we have to lean over them – icky. LOL!

>>. I guess after writing about Lanna a trained wrap the body would be an option too.

Yes – wrapping behind like this, built up slowly:

Evolution Skills Challenges: Behind The Back Starts

Or take a cone or wing and have him wrap it as the start obstacle before running into the sequence.

But most of all, if he is feeling any pressure getting started at this age, dial it back so he is super comfy and makes it through adolescence with happy feelings 🙂

>>She is starting to throw out an angry Smurf behavior where my timing sucks, she gets mad, and then stares and screams at me while screaming and not engaging obstacles. If it was one obstacle, who cares, but I am have trouble getting her back looking at any obstacles.

This is pretty common with a lot of dogs – they simply don’t know what to do when presented with certain human behaviors so they change arousal state. She barks & stares, some dogs sniff, some dogs have big zoomies.

So basically we need to teach her a coping skill for when cues are imperfect, to get more resilience and to give her a specific behavior to do when things are unclear in terms of other behaviors.

Knowing that I will make plenty of handling mistakes, I make sure my dogs are all confident with the Find My Face game as the coping skill & alternate behavior. Teaching it this way builds a very positive response to my sucky handling. That, plus teaching the dogs what to do when the other info is unclear, allows them to stay centered in their arousal and get right back to ‘work’. It is also trial-legal 🙂 And not punishing to the dog:

Alternate Behavior: Find My Face

>>If I sit her (in a polite can you sit, I take 1 step, and off we go) she will recollect and run again as previous. However, the second time I did this at the trial I felt some vibes coming from her that it felt like punishment. >>

I agree that this becomes a negative punisher – running is the gateway to earning the reinforcement, so stopping & sitting is removing that opportunity. Plus she is already in a non-optimal arousal state when it happens, which can lead to more icky feelings.

>> I am trying to come up with a reset behavior pattern that would get her head in the game and both of us facing the same direction. I’ve seen people use a wrap the person but I have seen some weird behaviors crop in with that.>>

I don’t like the person wrap in the ring either. I like Find My Face because I can keep moving and reset the dog as I turn and go again, with no change in arousal state. Like everything else, it needs to be trained to fluency before she would need it in the ring – fortunately it is easy and fun to train. I have a real life example of it at the end of the video:

The other thing that works amazingly well is to simply keep going no matter what has just happened, in training and in trialing. This the BEST thing for the dogs and the HARDEST thing for the humans. But when the humans ignore any errors in themselves or dog errors, the dogs are much happier and less frustrated in the ring, and the results are outstanding.

So, if you make a handling mistake and she goes past a jump or off course? Note it in your mind by keep going, fix it later. If you stop, even if the dogs get a reward in training…. it can still be a little frustrating to the dogs (and a LOT frustrating in trials where there is no reward available in that moment and they have no coping skills).

With that in mind, looking at the videos from the behavior perspective (because the handling was mostly lovely and you fixed any handling bloopers with connection the next time through):

Lanna video 1:
She finds a lot of great lines here on Video 1!

Try to get more reinforcement into driving the big lines and being correct, rather than the stopping and using reset cookies, or stopping after errors. Yes, there were cookies involved after some or all of the errors but there is still some frustration that gets built into the errors, and definitely more room for reinforcement for going fast on the big lines 🙂

When you stopped to reset after an error, I think the better option is to just keep going and fix it in the next run (the handling errors were connection errors).

At the beginning, you pulled her off 3 and into the tunnel – she got stopped and a cookie then re-started. In this situation, you won’t see any obvious signs of frustration because there is a cookie immediately. But it will ultimately be better to just keep going and reward at the end (because she was correct based on handling cues) rather than stop & fix, particularly because there will be no cookie in the ring.

A similar thing happened at :51 (broken connection, high arm, so she did not know which side to be on and didn’t take a jump). I am not sure if she got a cookie there, but you did a collar grab and a re-start… better to just keep going so she can get rewarded for running the line and not have any stops (in that moment of stopping, we are not entirely sure if the cookie is a positive reinforcement or stopping and eating it is actually a negative reinforcement – it might be a negative reinforcement based on how a lot of the dogs respond, compared to simply continuing the sequence as if there was no error (because from her perspective, there was no error, she was reading the handling correctly).

She was great on the big line around the back of the tunnel! So try to get rewards in for that, as if it was the end of the course, before asking her to weave – weaves are a high risk obstacle in terms of failure, so we want to keep the reinforcement rate high by getting rewards in before she might fail.

The difference in rewarding the big line versus stopping, giving a cookie, then restarting? Our behavior is entirely different – on the big line, we are running, we are telling the dogs they were correct, yay, woohoo! On the re-starts? We are stopping, calling the dog to us, cookie with less energy, collar grab… totally different and the dog knows the difference and that is why it can often be more of a punisher than a reinforcement.

On the 2nd video:
Lots of good examples of the difference reward delivery here – lots of “yes, you are correct, hooray!” and moving reinforcement while you ran a bit – plus she got her weaves too which might be partially because she had already seen them in the previous run, and partially because she was in a more optimal arousal state.

Arram video 1:
I think you can take the same approach with him as with Lanna – you can also teach him Find My Face as well as keep going after a handling error with him too! He is still learning the foundation stuff so when there is a handling error, he is presenting frustration behavior which we want to note and get rid of (by reducing frustration), before it becomes more obvious.
For example, at :12-:13, your tunnel cue was too rotated (connection was ahead of him and your shoulders were pointing to the other end of the tunnel) so when you stopped, he started jumping up at your arm and the toy. The similar thing happened at 2:26 – unclear cue, so he jumped up a little. We don’t want dogs to develop their own coping mechanisms (jumping up, barking, sniffing) so just keep going so he doesn’t realize there is any error in handling. You can then come back in the next go-round and fix with more connection or a placed reward.
Note how when the cue is clear, he does not do that. He was quite lovely finding those lines! So keep things very simple and clear, and if you make a mistake, don’t stop to fix it – just keep going and reward somewhere else.

The dogs end up finding lines better when we don’t stop and fix, because we clarify our handling and they stay in a better state of arousal 🙂

2nd video – This was a good video to look at how environment can change his behavior! On this one, when the distraction level was high in spots (people putting the weaves away) and the skill difficulty was high (backsides) you can see he could not quite process *both* so you got some frustration behavior (sniffing by the tunnel). When the distraction level was a little less, he was able to find the backside and the other lines. So be sure to dial back the difficulty of the skill if he is struggling with the distraction level – this is true for all dogs, particularly adolescents who have to grapple with their ever-changing brain 🙂

Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!

Yes, it was a bit boring 🙂 The final stretch was trough the Blue Ridge Mountains in West Virginia and VA, which was gorgeous but harder to drive in the RV.

>>.Agility has come a long way from the “run with your dog and go forward” days

SO TRUE! Ha!!!! Those were happy times – things are much more complex now LOL!

[Tracy Sklenar]

You can also rotate the jump a bit, so it is easier for her to see the bar when she exits the tunnel. It is a serp, so you can rotate it like we do in the serp games 🙂
Keep me posted about the vet appt!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi! This is looking great!! And I loved hearing her human and animal audience cheering in the background 🙂 You all make it so fun for her and I agree, I think she really enjoys it.

Seq 1: The lead out blind looked great – timing was really good and she reads the blind super quick! You can lead out further so you can be moving towards 3 sooner and to set the line sooner, since she is moving so fast.

When you did the lead out to the throwback, you can get close to #3, close enough to touch it. On the first rep, she turned well but I agree that picking her up on you right will be clearer for her.
At :24 you were right on the line to the tunnel then moved backwards at :29 so she read it as the cue for the tunnel (backwards motion is the same as forwards motion LOL!) Note how at :56 you were right at 3 and she never looked at the tunnel – perfect!

Sequence 2:
This went REALLY well too!

Both of your handling options on 3-4 looked great – and what you did 3-4 changed the line 5-6. When you went to the takeoff side of 3, the RC at 5 went better because you were not as far ahead. The BC on landing of 3 was great, but it did put you a little far ahead of her at 1:24, 1:37 , 1:47 and 1:59 – so the RC was not as smooth there. You can make it more smooth by getting the BC then decelerating at 4 til she catches up to set the RC, then move forward up the line.

The BC on the ending line 8-9 on the landing of 8 worked GREAT at 2:06, because it got you further ahead up the last line.

Great job here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!

>>Somehow I thought using my threadle word, somehow turned it into a threadle.

The verbal does turn it into a threadle – it names her behavior, not yours LOL! Her behavior on both of these videos is threadle. Your behavior on the previous video was forced front and on today’s video is threadle LOL!

The lead out threadles look good, she seemed to have no trouble reading them. And you had your threadle arm in position before the release, which is great!

Question – have you considered using one arm for the threadle rather than the cross arm? The one-armed threadle here n these lead outs is soooo much easier than the cross arm. The cross arm might be why they feel awkward. The one-arm threadle is very easy 🙂

>>We made the big move of entering 1 speedstakes run each day at a UKI trial over Labor Day weekend at 16s to do NFC and play around.>>

YES! And for UKI NFC, you don’t even have to jump 16, you can put her at any height (just talk to the trial secretary). nd you can have a helper in the ring, for toy throws, etc.

>>Dellin is making good progress, but she definitely has opinions, so we’ve been respecting that and working with her. I keep every session to 4 reps and that seems to be working for her. Would you be open to seeing a bit of teeter video?>>

I would be happy to! What are her opinions? Most dogs have opinions about the teeter 🙂 Looking forward to it!!!

Nice work here 🙂
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!

She is doing well with her lefts and rights here! The dogs sometimes trot when we start this, so no worries about that and we can tweak the mechanics to get her bouncing more:

To get more power into this, you can change her line up differently. Rather than start with her having to turn away from you into it (which is slower), have her start at your side and facing the direction you want her to go (like you did at :41 for example). Have her line up at your side, facing the wings, with you holding her collar: then say left or right a few times while still holding her… then let go and she will move through the little pinwheel.

Nice work here! Let me know how it goes when you line her up at your side.

Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!
This is good information from Changtse that the noise is concerning to her! It is indeed very loud and bouncy – each hit of the board produces multiple noises as it rebounds, rather than one quiet noise. So, watching these 2 videos, a couple of suggestions:

– dampen the noise a lot by putting towels or cloth so that when the board moves, it doesn’t rattle as much and it is more stable (doesn’t bonce around behind her). Put the sound dampeners in 3 places: where the board meets the Teach it, where the board meets the ground, and on the teeter base (you can put tunnel bags on the teeter base to stabilize and quiet it).

– use insanely high value treats or her favorite toy like a ball. And when the teeter makes a noise, throw the toy or treat far from the teeter so she runs to go get it 🙂 That will keep her pumped up from the running, and get her away from the noise (which is a bit of negative reinforcement to go along with the positive reinforcement).

– You can be sitting – that seemed to go better than when you were standing.

Let me know how it goes! It is normal that adolescent dogs have a period where they think the teeter is icky 🙂 so we will work her through it 🙂

Tracy

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