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Good morning!
>I probably won’t run with the water until I have my magnet fingers working. When I do move on to the H2O I’m definitely not risking my coffee! Haha!>
Running with water will help solidify magnet fingers LOL!! And I used to have a rule for myself: make exactly one cup of coffee and run a sequence with it. And if I spill it, I was not allowed to make a 2nd cup of coffee. That was risky LOL but I also got really good at keeping my hands low 🙂 Coffee is very valuable haha!
>I devised my own fuzzy holee roller toy (head of pink piggy stuffed in the ball then tied in place with the arms. What a difference. Amazing that she held her stay with pink piggy out there. >
She was brilliant! The toy was great and 100% did what we wanted it to do: support her forward drive and keep her head from coming up. My only suggestion is to add in rewards thrown back to her after you have started dragging the toy, because she is definitely smart enough to quickly figure out that dragging means release, and might start releasing when the toy starts dragging 🙂
>She’s so fast I can’t really tell how her jumping form looks. >
I use slow motion to watch the video. There is a setting icon on YouTube where you can set the video to play as slowly as 25% speed.
Her form looks great: rounded, powerful, consistent, excellent rhythm, excellent hind end organization, lovely head position, and so on 🙂 As the young people say nowadays: no notes. Yay! Our goal is to introduce a variety of little jumping ‘puzzles’ so she can read and solve these puzzles by the time she is ready and old enough to jump actual height on the bars.
>Let me know what you see. I left a “swifter” tug in the video cuz she is so dang cute!!>
She is totally adorable!!! I just love her!!!! Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
The moving target game is off to a good start and gave us helpful info:
Does Tarot love to drive to the toy? Yes!
Does want to grab the part of the toy right next to your hand? Also yes!
For a regular game like a handling game, no problem at all. For the jumping grids we are going to use it for, we want to get her looking down to the bottom of the toy. So something to try is dragging a giant lotus ball with a cookie in it attached to a line, because she might be more likely to look down at that and not try to grab it up by your hand.
You can start the set point and if she likes the lotus ball as the moving target, we can add it to the set point pretty quickly.
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
>Wait till you hear me say ready? And she answers..no barking allowed, lol>
Ha! She said YES I AM READY! 😂
Nice work on the games here!
She did well holding the stay and driving to the toy on the moving target game!
The moving target itself can be a few feet longer, so it drags on the ground and you don’t have to bend over as you move forward. Bending over might be a little too exciting for the stay as we add the set point, encouraging too much leaning forward from her. Plus when we get you moving fast, it will be weird feeling to run while bending forward 🙂 So tie this toy to another and it will be perfect!You can start the set point now – and when she is comfy with the setup, add the moving target to it.
She also did well with the wind in your hair game – her only question was about what the reward was: cookie or the frisbee you were holding.
You should totally use the frisbee for the wind in in your hair game – holding it but not using it was causing her to look at you more than needed (“are you going to throw that thing, human?!?”) and I think she would prefer the frisbee getting thrown anyway over the treats begin tossed 🙂
When you did throw the toy, you got a lot more speed and forward focus! So keep going with the thrown rewards and now add more distance between the wing and the jump.
The video goes black after 5:10 but there is still sound – let me know if there were visuals missing?
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
>I was surprised he was so spooked and off task. Normally he does not seem worried in this part of the property, but he normally has social support from his sister (who I had just put in the car) and the big distraction of her running and being so fun>
It might have been a combination of things – the arousing run around got him stimulated, the social support of his sister was removed, and he didn’t fully understand the toy game so perhaps a little frustrated. Combine that with him being 6 months old (early adolescence) where the brain is more likely to react rather than problem solve… plus in the first moment he reacted: Noise from above (plane?) might have been the trigger? It was pretty loud on the video but it might not have been noticeable to you in the moment. Video will catch things we didn’t hear 🙂
At his age, he is not likely to self-regulate automatically and if he leans more towards reacting, the work with the behaviorist will really help! In the moment when it happens, you can use a pattern game to help him out – you had one going at the beginning of the food video and he was great at it!
On the toy video:
He was tugging really well at the beginning! He is still learning the toy marker – you can throw it further so he will chase it more naturally than when it is stationary right in front of him to help solidify the understanding of the marker and get him driving ahead.The beginning of the food video had a lovely back and forth cookie pattern which is something you can totally do if he starts to notice things in the environment, to provide a framework for processing the distraction.
The get it for the food went really well – he was focused directly on it and moved towards it with no question at all. You can definitely build on it to add more distance for him to drive, and add your motion too! When adding more distance, you can put the cookie on a target or in a bowl so it is more visible and he will find it more easily outside.
Driving to you for the decel game also went really well! You can send him to a target for the cookie so he can find it easily and give you a bigger head start too 🙂 He was driving to you and then his butt was swinging wide as you rewarded, so you can add the pivot which will keep him tight to your leg.
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Good morning!
Well done working him through this progression! Your low hand position helped give him a focal point so he was able to drive to you and pivot nice and tight with you 🙂 Since this went so well, you can go to the next step which adds more of your movement: when he is going to get the start cookie, you can start moving away from him (slow jog will work well!). Then as he starts moving toward you, let him see you transition into a deceleration so he can collect to drive at your side then pivot.
He liked the toy in the forward focus game – but it was almost like he was waiting for you to move as ‘permission’ to get it. I like your idea of using a hollee roller or anything that will keep rolling. We can get him moving on the ‘get it’ word by throwing it further and letting him go even sooner, maybe even before it lands. That will help him drive ahead even more so he doesn’t need to wait for you to also move.
You can also try it with a giant cookie, he might be happy to drive forward to a stationary cookie and the we can transfer the concept to a toy.
Great job here!
Tracy
Hi!
>I mentally ran through our training and I FORGOT to teach her a release word. We played the two toy game, and I was shaking the other toy for a release. We skipped a few steps!>
Ha! That is so funny! She is a good girl 🙂
The personal play of the ready game went well! We want her to be engaged with you and ready to go, but also keeping her feet on the ground like she did here, instead of pummeling you. She liked it when you were being crouchy and silly – but she didn’t really want you to move your hands to her face (she backed off a bit when you did that). So keep going with the crouchy, fun bopping back and forth as the engagement before the send.
The sends went really well! She was not entirely sure for the first one or two, but after that she was perfect: driving to the prop then doing a nice snappy smack before turning back to you! You can go to the advanced level and try the sideways and backwards sending.
Great job here!
TracyHi!
Using the stay is definitely an option here! You can also put a cookie in a big bowl then reward her for walking away from it… then send her to it to start the blind cross game. That is a fun opportunity to build up some ignoring of place rewards!
She did great from the stays, though! That allowed you to show the blind: super clear connection and she had no trouble finding the new side. Yay! If she will hold a stay long enough, you can try for 2 blinds: do the first blind as soon as she releases from the stay so you have time to do the 2nd blind.
If you are at a trial on any of these weekends, you can ask someone to hold her so you get really far ahead and can easily get 2 blinds in 🙂
Nice work here!
Tracy
Hi!
>He has been having some tummy issues with all the treats. I question if Dublin is going through some fear period or something he was a little off yesterday with noise from snowplow and garbage truck in the am and then barking at his own reflection later that night. Today he was barking at the bag I used for the neutral object.>
He might be right at the beginning of adolescence, where we see these sensitivities for sure. The sensitive periods in the brain develop at different times, so it is possible he is in a sensitive period now.
Also, if his GI is off and his belly hurts – he might just be feeling crabby 🙂 I don’t blame him! Also he has had a lot of training sessions so you can take a day off and let him rest and let his belly feel better.
> I had thought about doing an outing for resilience walk but not sure now.>
Let him rest for a day and let his GI system feel better, then you can carry on 🙂
>I hope it is ok but I just combined into one video.>
Absolutely! There were a lot of sessions all from today, and lots in the last few days, so he might be brain-tired and belly-upset. You can do one or two games a day then let him sleep on it 🙂
The 3 cones for the wing wraps went well! You can also use a rolling suitcase or a laundry basket, anything you have floating around is good 🙂 And remember to break things up for toy play so he doesn’t go too long and lose his train of thought (I think that is what happened at the end of that part of the session).
Goat-ing around on the cato board went great too! You had lovely transitions from the food to the toy, and he was super engaged. Later on you did the bone and he did well too, happy to get on it and sit on it, even though it was unstable. You can put several objects around for him to walk all over during his goat games, and even pile them up a bit!
The foot targeting went great! He has developed a lot of value and understanding for that little mat and did great! Lovely transitions into tug here too 🙂
Since this went so well, you can go to the next game where you are sending him to the prop and alternating between handler focus and obstacle focusYou did a great job throughout there picking up the prop or Goat object to play tug, then putting it back down to do more shaping. Super!
Double turns also looked really good: easy peasy!!
For the novel neutral stealth self-control game: based on how close the object was to you and how you were facing him – I am pretty sure he thought you wanted him to offer behavior on it. And that might be why he kept going to the object. So you can do recalls where you are moving away from him and have the object further away so it is not potentially something he thinks we want him to offer behavior on.
For the bag: it is possible he as barking at it because a few things happened. It was at the end of a lot of training, so he might have been mentally depleted (brain tired 🙂 ) and not able to have a lot of self-control on it to ignore it. Also, he sniffed it and something must have smelled weird, because that is when he backed away and barked. So it was fine to pick it up and not worry about it. No need to revisit that weird bag LOL!!
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Hi!
>I’ve attended a seminar with you years ago hosted by Blue Ridge Agility Club & it was a lot of fun.>
OMG! Those were super fun! And I am coming back this year, along with Loretta Mueller!
>The videos attached (Hopefully-lol) are our 1st & 2nd try.>
3 videos came through! They had weird link titles like “666” “yes” and “**” LOL! So it might be easier to copy the link from the URL window and paste it into the threadle text post.
Looking at the videos: She is so cute!
On the first video (prop game): you engaged her with the toy and she was interested! But she didn’t actually tug. You can try attaching the toy to a line or another long toy, so you can swing it around for her to chase and grab. She tugged better at the end but attaching it to something to make it longer will get the tug even more easily 🙂
Nice clicks/ treats to get her building value for it! After the first clicks, she totally knew it was about the bag so you can change your reward placement: click then toss a treat off to the side (rather than reward on the bag) so she can run to get the treat, then run back to smack the bag.
Aha! You had the toy on a line for the forward focus game and it went great: she was tugging brilliantly! Her forward focus looked great here too – for her next session, you can show the toy further and let go of the line. If you think she might take the toy and go for a run with it, you can run the other direction and reward with a 2nd toy when she gets to the first one.
And sine she did so well here, you can also add in your movement: running forward as soon as you let her start driving to the toy.
The 3rd video was a 2nd foot target session: you nailed the timing of that first click when she quite clearly lifted her foot to smack the target. She wanted to nose it a bit, so you can wait a bit longer to see what she will do – try not to move or anything, just let her offer something about moving towards it with feet, not her nose 🙂 She might have been waiting for you to help, so this is a perfect game to let her work through offering more behavior when you aren’t clicking or pointing to the target.
Great job here!!
Tracy
Hi!
>I think I did good with my internal clock, lol! Check out the length of the videos- woot!>
Heck yeah! Impressive internal clock here!!
She was definitely ALL IN for the food in the bowl during the forward focus game! She was great with her driving ahead and hilarious when she stole it as you tried to move her away. Ha! You can add more distance to this game – do you have good weather and can do it outside?
>I’d like to try this with a toy to see how it goes.>
Definitely! You can try it with a toy and see how she does!
She has good value for the prop and was happy to leave you for it. You might have been a shade far from it at first when transitioning from handler focus/ready dance so she was not hitting it quite as well, so moving closer was the right choice. She had a little trouble moving past the send hand (because hands mean cookies!) but she is doing really well in these early stages! You will see more and more independence develop, so keep sending and rewarding like you did here, getting the cookies to the prop when she went to it. When she is driving to the prop past your hand, we can start to shift the reward back to your hand as well.
Wing wraps: This is also going well!
She had a bit of a chain going for a couple of reps: going around the cone to her right (from your left hand to your right hand) then sliding between you can the cone to her left. That likely means she is a righty, so we can adjust things a little to help get the left turns (moving from your right hand to your left hand).On the right turns (your left hand to your right hand) you can add a little distance between you and the cone. Then when she is going to her left (your right hand to your left hand) you can side the cone back in close to you so she can be successful with the left turns. And soon enough, the left turns will be as strong and natural as the right turns 🙂
Great job here!!!
Tracy
Hi!
> We worked on it some yesterday evening and I was able to get more distance and not use as much physical cues. I did a few reps of holding her back but in front of the wing with me behind it and having her go to the tunnel and that helped smooth it out.>
Awesome!!! I am glad it went well 🙂
> I did do some throwing the toy at the end of the tunnel and she loves it. That’s something that I’ve used in training all my greyhounds. It’s always so motivating and relaxing for the sighthounds and I’s so glad that you understand that.>
1000% agree!!! Throwing the toy and also attaching the toys to a line to drag for them to chase is super fun. Then I let them run around with the toy for a bit because honestly, I think that is a big part of the reward for these hounds 🙂 And the moving target game is something that my whippets/lurchers taught me in order to get the best jump! So I am sure Carmen will enjoy the moving target game too 🙂
>We’ve been working the set point too. But I needed to go back and work her happy stay and release some.>
Yes – keeping the stay happy is so important, so take your time building it up.
>I have a 3 day weekend with nice weather so I’m excited to get lots of sessions of all the games in and will video.>
Fun!! I am looking forward to more! Have fun!
Tracy
Hi!
>I’m not sure if YouTube will take out the volume because the radio is on in the background, but we’ll just assume my verbals were also amazing on this one.>
Ha! Youtube left the music in for now 😂 And your verbals were good!!! Especially on the GO – check out that gorgeous connection as you said the verbal directly to him. Then he left you in the dust, driving to the jump. Click/treat for you both!
Looking at the set point: what is the distance? Might be a little too short for him, maybe add 6 inches and we will see what he says?
Also, start him right up close to jump 1, about 6 inches away, so he does not have room to tap his front feet down again after the release: we want him to plyometrically push off from his rear only for jump 1.
Also, he is ready for the moving target instead of the stationary reward. The stationary reward plus starting him further from jump p1 are causing his rear to be high over jump 2, as he kind of dives on the reward. But if the target is moving and he is close to jump 1, he will be coming in on his rear better AND use his rear better between the jumps (because he is not planning to stop to get the reward, he is preparing to power through for another couple of strides.
And well done rewarding and maintaining his stays! Super!
Great job here 🙂
TracyHi!
>So for the “Wind in our Hair”, I should be rewarding any time she goes over the “jump”, but not if she comes with me and goes around it, correct? >
Yes – reward for finding the jump, even if it is a delayed find 🙂 The delayed find could be that she is looking for more connection, or still building value for the jump – all good! And if she misses he jump once or twice, you can ramp up the connection and/or slow down the motion to see if that helps her.
>I didn’t try the more advanced distance, or staying behind as I want her to be a bit more solid with focus forward while paralleling my path. >
And when you do add being a little behind, you can throw even sooner, or sometimes place the reward depending on the distance.
>Here is our “Smiley Face” session from this morning. She surprised me! >
Team Jazz rocked it!!! Wowza!!! Your connection and line of motion really helped her, and it was great to see her commitment foundation start to come together here! Yay!
>I think my spacing for the wings in relation to the tunnel may have been off. Didn’t seem like a great line for her, but she got it. I>
Seemed like it looked good!
>I also noticed that I’m still blocking the wing and pointing. I’d like to smooth it out; looks like I kind of race to the end of the tunnel and then step and point for the wrap so there’s a lot of stop and go. What’s the best approach for breaking that habit?>
That was going to be my only suggestion: point back to her and let your hand move with her nose, rather than point ahead. I don’t think you were blocking the wings, but pointing might have made it feel that way?
Two ways to break the pointing habit:
– you can think of having magnets on your fingers that are going to pull to her eyes:
– you can run with an open bottle of water in your dog-side hand and don’t spill it!
This is how I stopped my pointing habit 🙂
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Hello and welcome back!!
He is happy to be back working – the Wind In Your Hair game looked great!!! He was happy to wrap and totally drove to the jump! Super! Since this went so well, keep adding distance between the wing and the jump – and you can add more of your speed too. When you are ahead and running, it challenges him to find the jump and not jut chase you. And, you can start at the wing and stick close to it – then start running forward when he exits the wing wrap. That challenges him to drive ahead even more.
Set point is off to a great start! He did well sorting out one jump to the target. And he also sorted out the structure of the set point, especially the stay-til-released part (that was his least favorite part LOL!!)
Since he is moving really well through this setup, it is time to add the moving target from the pre-game (slowly dragging the reward rather than using a stationary reward). That will help him set his rear between the 2 jumps even more: with the stationary target, he is primarily sorting out how to stop so you can see the weight shifting out of his rear. The moving target will get a strong push off between jumps to get a really powerful form 🙂
>I had the jumps 4 feet apart which I thought was correct for him, but it seemed maybe a little hard so should try them closer?>
How tall is he now? I think the 4 feet seemed good for now and adding the moving target will give us an even better idea if whether it is the right distance or not.
Great job!
Tracy
