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Good morning!
Backside wraps on the wing are going well! His countermotion commitment looks great!
A couple of mechanics tweaks – Make sure you don’t block the wing as you start him – you were putting yourself on his line so he had to cut in front of you -try to have your belly button facing the lattice of the wing so he moves ahead of you and you move in behind him.
Also, you can use a cookie to line him up and then when he is lined up, take his collar. By moving him into position by the collar, he is a little uncomfortable and wiggling around, lifting front feet, then avoiding it. So a cookie lure will make it easy for both of you 🙂 Then while holding him, say the verbal 3 or 4 times before you let go, so he an process the verbals.
The wing to tunnel also looks good! He had really nice commitment to the wing and no problem driving to the tunnel And when you reversed it, VERY nice stay in front of the tunnel!! It allowed you to get way ahead to show connection 0 just move more slowly on those because he has to shift from going REAL FAST (straight tunnel) to slowing down into collection.
One way to help him out is to move the wing closer to the tunnel exit, so it is right there and he does’t need to travel as far to it after the tunnel – the distance makes it harder for the baby pups! And that way you can get way ahead and just move towards it.
However I bet latent learning kicks in and when you revisit this in a day or two… he will have it really nicely 🙂 Then you can add in a wing on both ends the tunnel, starting them very close because it is a lot of running for you both LOL!!
Great job!!!! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!!
>>Your name for this game is on point because I really need to “strike a pose”. >>
Ha! And it reminds me of the Madonna songs from the days of my youth so it makes me laugh – can’t take it all too seriously when I am singing old Madonna songs!
>>All I can say is, I sat in on the live class with my mouth hanging open, super impressed at all the puppies doing BACKSIDES as PUPPIES >>
They were pretty amazing! It was built off of their understanding of going around the barrel and of parallel path to the handler.
And Bazinga also did great! The thumbnail for the video on YouTube is a freeze frae of her independently driving around the backside barrel 🙂
You did a great job of moving along the parallel path and NOT blocking the barrel so she as able to read it. She had one blooper when you were moving to the center of the bar, and that was when you turned your shoulders too early so she slipped in and took the front. On all the other reps, you keep your shoulder “open” to her and great connection, so there were no ore questions.
Great job with the reward placement, great job adding the verbal, and great job going to the toy! Excellent session!
>>I think I’ll pick “back, back” for the backside wraps since I’m not using that yet and I can add it to Frankie’s vocab >>
Sounds good!!!

>>I alternated in “Catches” and “Breaks” on the startline. Is that ok to do with the games?>>Yes, that was smart training because we have to release while we are moving – we want the pups to be sure. that they should stay until they hear the release, and not move just because we are moving.
Since this went so well, you can keep working on moving further and further away from the entry barrel as you add the verbal.
Great job!!!
TracyFound the video! Yay! It showed up right after I replied 🙂
She definitely wants to read which side she is on as the cue, that was where she had her most success. So with that in mind, you can teach her the concept of verbal overriding position by just having on of the obstacles out there (jump or tunnel, not both) and start her from each side of you and between your feet. Do that will both obstacles separately, then add them back together.
I like having you sitting in the chair for this, because you were moving when you were standing (the left leg was cuing the obstacle :)) so the chair will really separate the verbal from motion. But having her do the obstacles individually from both sides and the neutral position will help her realize that your position might not matter and she needs to hear the verbal.
And if something goes awry, you can bring her back to her start position with a cookie (no need to throw the ball for the ‘wrong’ answer :)) And the will keep her ‘in the game’ but also will save the ball reward for the correct answer.
Great job! And you don’t need this game to be perfect before you try the handling games, you can work the handling games concurrently.
Have fun!
TracyThe handling combos also looked really good! Lovely connection, strong verbals… I don’t think he looked to the wrong spot at all. He seems to have a nice balance of jump and tunnel value, so he is happy to go to whichever one you are asking for.
So since these were all pretty perfect… add running 🙂 You can either run up to the wing so you can then run into the discrimination, or you send send to the wing and run way past the jump and tunnel entry. That will be maybe a little more challenging because of all the motion (or it might still be super easy because he reads all the cues so well and your connection is really strong).
>>The verbals were not rolling off my tongue very quickly, but I managed to spit a few out.>>
Adding more motion will challenge your verbals more too 🙂 You can walk it without him once or twice so you can run more and get the verbals without having to think about it.
Great job here!!!! Let me know how he does with more motion :)
TracyHi!
These first handling challenges are also looking good – nice connection with the position 1 reps! You can add more motion while you do these connected reps: you can be running (because the connection should support the cue).Starting closer to the wing and letting him drive ahead also looked really good, no trouble at all – definitely add running to those too. (You can start touching the wing so you don’t end up too far ahead when you want him to drive ahead, and you will still have room to run.
The disconnected reps also looked good! These had the perfect amount of motion (not a whole lot) because disconnection is so hard.
Since it all went really well, you can add a lot more motion to the connected reps (including trying to get waaaaaay ahead, past the tunnel, and be connected and running) and a little more motion to the disconnected reps.
Great job!
TracyGood morning! It is great to see you in a working spot here!
The verbal only discrimination is super hard and he is doing well from the position with you standing up – there is a recognizable “mom is standing, go do a thing” and maybe a tiny bit of leaning so he did well.
One thing to add to the standing is to hold onto him so he can hear the verbal a few times and hen move. I think he was trying to move on the very first sound which is a goal star for enthusiasm LOL! But moving that early doesn’t always give him a moment to process the verbal.>>He kept offering lying down and looking at me rather than taking the jump or the tunnel. I’m guessing it’s all of the mat relaxation that we’ve done that makes him think this is what I want.>>
That makes sense because yes, he thought sitting in the chair was bizarre at first LOL! There is no preconceived notion of doing agility while mom is in a chair 🙂 It is interesting to see how the chair indicates behavior and when the chair is not there, the obstacles indicate behavior. But he was able to offer motion to the obstacles and then was getting lots of success when he lined up at your side. For the chair game, I also recommend holding him by the collar so he can hear the verbal 3 or 4 times and then you can let him move.
He was successful at your side here by the end of the video, so that is where I would start him on the next session – at your side but holding him so you can get the verbal going. And then eventually you can work up to sitting with him between your feet (this is really hard!) And your plan to revisit this challenge a couple of times a week is a good one – it doesn’t need to be daily and we do want latent learning kicking in. Plus, we add to it on Monday in a way that might be more fun for him 🙂
Great job!
TracyHappy birthday Ripley! I am raising a birthday toast to him!!
This session went really well –
>>Sorry, long stressful work week and my brain is a little fried.
totally relatable! But you still got in a really good training session and showed him lots of the challenges. And he rocked it. It looked like everything you did was successful. I think the only thing you didn’t show him were the reps of you getting way ahead past the tunnel/jump and running hard (with connection) – so if you wanted to do that again, definitely try it as it will simulate course working also set him up for next week’s games 🙂
And if he is happy with you being super far ahead and moving fast, you can try a new tweak on it which is you being super far ahead and not really connecting (but maybe not super fast at first, but definitely in motion).
Great job here!!
Tracy
Good morning! (Or is it afternoon there?)
I think this session was more about sorting out reinforcement for now – she seems to like the thrown reward, she seems to love the obstacles, and she seems not terribly interested in the food from your hand if it means lining up LOL!
Overall she did well with the directionals – they were all correct except one, so that is a really high success rate!!! You can have her chase the thrown ball as a reward like you did here – then to get her to come back, you can try using a tug toy or another ball, so the reward and the line up are (almost) as fun as the obstacles.
I think most of the ‘ma feets won’t move’ moments were the line up, so that is no worries and we can figure out what it more motivating to convince her to line up.
Yes, you can definitely move to the handling games – the challenge is motion and connection, so you will both enjoy being able to move more 🙂
Great job!!!
TracyGood morning! I think you will have fun! We are seeing jump-tunnel discrims everywhere nowadays (plus when Audie is a little older, you can play these games because they are good for pups too – maybe when he is 9 or 10 months you can start them 🙂
TracyGood morning!
This session looked really good! She seems MUCH happier to move away to the obstacle!
>>We are still struggling with the high value of the toy as a reward. That was a separate, but good lesson.>>
It looked like the toy was mostly in your position and one rep it was on the ground between your feet, and she did much better about moving away from it. That is a good start! You can keep it in your pocket and then gradually get it into your hand. Moving away from the high value reinforcement is part of the challenge, in terms of creating commitment. She is doing well!!! I think you should stick with the toy as she is making tremendous progress.
The tunnel commitment went really well, and so did the jump commitment.
You can still reward the backside, it is jump-ish enough for now 🙂 I think it had to do with your chair position because she was convinced of it – then took the front when you moved.
You can shelve this game til next week so she can percolate on it and let latent learning do its magic – we build on it and also we will have new games coming on Monday. Have a great time at the trial!!!
Nice work 🙂
TracyGood morning!
>>both words ended up sounding the same – but crazy the other way, loud, lots….Sly was SO confused!!! New plan; no dog, me just sit in a chair and work on the words. We’ll give it try and see how it goes!
I like that plan! And it is good rehearsal to make sure the words are different because we do often end up making them sound too alike even during runs.
On the video:
>>How soon can I give the verbal cues for Jump and Tunnel?You can start them as soon as he is finishing the barrel wrap, and repeat them a bunch of times – that is mostly what you did here and it all looked really good!
If you give them much sooner than that, you run the risk of him looking at and going to the wrong line. It won’t happen in this training setup but it sure can happen on course!
I think the only time you were a little late in starting the verbal was the jump verbal when you were way ahead, and then you only said it once. He had the widest line there on the way to the jump when you were way ahead – the motion and the proximity of the tunnel definitely made it harder!!! But he still got the correct obstacle – YAY!!!!
>Should I do this from the other side – have him wrap the barrel to his right?
You can if you like! The games all balance out in the end, so a few reps on the other side are fun or you can add in turning to his right. I decided to only work one side on this game because the variable changes came in the form of the different positions and disconnection, so I didn’t want to change too many things.
>>one each from the spin. I was curious to see how much which side he was on exiting the barrel was impacting his decision of which obstacle to take.>>
Your position does impact his decision – which is why we do the reps where were are way ahead, past the entry of both the obstacles, to negate the positional influence and see how he does with the connection (or disconnection haha) and verbal. He did great!!!!
And yes, disconnection is weird and hard when we WANT to disconnect, but somehow it all feels natural when we don’t want to disconnect LOL!! He did well there too – it is the hardest element because it really emphasizes the verbals.
Great job!!
TracyGood morning!
This is a really hard game!!!
>> I think she just remembered that the jump was the last successful thing she did the last time I was being a total weirdo>>
I agree, she thought this was WEIRD haha! But the good news is that she figured out that it was “go do a thing while the human is sitting” even if she didn’t yet have the discrimination between the tunnel and jump. That is a big step in the right direction (pun intended hahaha)
So to help build up the discrimination, 2 ways to tackle this:
– you can be sitting in a chair, closer to the obstacle, but only have one visible so she learns to independently leave you for a jump or tunnel without motion and without the other obstacle visible.
– separately, you can be in the chair in front of both obstacles, a little closer… and point to the obstacle you want. That way you are fading the motion and handling help, rather than removing it entirely from the start. Then we can fade out the pointing.
Let me know if that makes sense!! Have fun!
TracyGood morning, great to see you here!!!
She was amazing on that first video! The jump was a little harder at first but then it evened out and she was great at both!
The handling 1 game went really well too!! You can increase the challenge with position 2 by getting even further ahead – if you can send her to the start wing from miles away and be passing the center of the tnnel when she exits the wrap, that should increase the challenge because she can see a lot o fmotion and both obstacles… but needs to look at your upper body and listen for the verbals.
When you do the disconnection, yo ucan add more motion to that now – basically you would be moving forward and not really looking at her at all 🙂
Great job here! You can add in the Handling 2 combos as well 🙂
Tracy
