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Hi and welcome!!
yes, it would make sense that there were too many things changing: chair, collar hold, discriminations, etc. So you can do it standing up – but we want her to not start until you have said the verbal a few times, so a hand on the collar is something worth working through.
And since motion is harder for her, you can do the handling games – no need to wait for the verbal-only game to be perfect, because the handling games focus on different skills (connection, motion, etc).
Have fun!
TracyGood morning!
The MM blooper was hilarious!!! His expression was so cute!
He has always been amazing with his verbals, so I am not surprised that this session went so well – a super high rate of success!!!
He easily went to the jump or tunnel when he was on the same side as the obstacle – you can also have him do each obstacle from that same side: for example, when he is on your left, you can cue the jump or the tunnel which makes it a whole lot harder because being at your side adds a bit of handling info… and now we would be asking the verbal to override that.
He did really well with the neutral position starts!!! Super!!!!
The first game next week builds on this, so you don’t need to revisit it unless you wanted to try each obstacle with him at your side (rather than switching sides). You can totally go to the handling games too 🙂
Great job!
TracyHi!
For the longer distance sends to the wing, you can totally use physical cues. The only game which has no motion is the first one with the jump-tunnel discrimination 🙂
TracyHi!
The rocking horses looked really good!! You got a lot more commitment and connection going on most of the reps here and she nailed it! She is VERY responsive to all of your handling and cues, which is good news but also bad news LOL!! All of her little questions were handling bloopers:
The rep where you messed up the verbals was the one where she messed up the commitment -she was probably saying “what the heck is the momma doing?!?!” LOL!!!
She didn’t fully commit to the left turn wrap at :52 – you can drive forward longer, you rotated too soon there and left wraps seem to be ever so slightly harder for her on this game (but it is a small difference).
At 1:37 she pushed away to her left – because you stepped that direction, almost like a rear cross line. The next rep you stepped straight forward so she went to the wing. Yay!
We do more rear cross stuff in the next class, but it is good to do a refresher here! I think the session overall went well – you did a couple too many parallel path reps at the beginning because the first rear cross rep at :28 was a total surprise to her LOL!! You were a little too close to the jump on the next couple of reps she it made the cues a little rushed, but then you found the sweet spot of how far back you needed to start in order to show her the RC line – and then it looked great! She was able to turn nicely in both directions on the RC, and go back to the straight line when you cued that at the end. SUPER!
>>I used food since it is a little less arousing but would a toy be good to use on this?
For dogs that like toys, I think the handling stuff like this should be all with toys and not all with food (yes, you can reward the retrieve with a cookie but the main rewards should be toys). We want the arousal for a variety of reasons – and also, she prefers toys over food! I think she does it fine with food but it is more like drilling… doing it for a toy will be more like play!
Nice work here!
TracyHi!
She is definitely improved with this game – it is wicked hard!! She did well taking the tunnel on just the verbal. It was harder when the jump was there, but I think there are a couple of tweaks that will help her:
– she seemed to be moving to the obstacle as soon as she heard noise come out of your mouth LOL! That means she was not really processing the verbal, she was just go go going LOL!! So hold onto her until she hears the verbal 4 or 5 times… then let her move (she might have big mad feelings about that but… LOL!!!)
Yes, I like your idea to shorten up the tunnel but also I think moving the obstacles further apart will help too.
And it sounds crazy – but you might to try it without the MM out there. She might be doing things as fast as she can to get to it 🙂 so throwing the rewards might end up being the better plan. The rewards might be later but that is fine because the visual of the MM might be too stimulating for now.
At one point on the video, you asked if the verbal should override position – yes, it should 🙂 Eventually! So this is a good game to revisit once a week or once every two weeks or so, to rotate it through the games you play. It takes a long time to get it perfect but she is on the right road. Yay!
And yes – you can do the handling games because those tackle a different skill set (more about the motion and the connection, with the verbals in there too)
Great job!!! I am looking forward to the handling games!
Tracy
Hi!
The decel game is going well too! After a couple of parallel path reps, he was terrific about shifting into collection immediately when you were stationary. YAY!!! That is hard to do and he nailed it. And great job rewarding some stays too – very lovely session!Great job on all of these. Let me know what you think!
TracyThe tunnel-to-wing looked great! Easy peasy! He seemed very confident on both sides in the first video 🙂
On the 2nd video – he did really well here too! No trouble adding the 2nd wing. You can reward after the 2nd tunnel, so the two of you don’t get dizzy LOL!!
The 3rd video looked good too – I think you were doing the tunnel threadle arm/verbal, so you can send him back into the tunnel when you do that. But he was very responsive to all the cues! Super!!
So… as soon as the snow melts 🙂 take this game outside so you can stretch out the distances and run run run 🙂
Great job!
Tracy
He is doing well here too!
On the first video,
It was hard to see your head on these to see where you were looking, so be sure that you look back behind you to the landing spot and point to it (rather than look at his cute face LOL!). You can also throw the reward sooner – that will help him look at the jump and not at you. As with the start line games, I think using a cone or barrel might make more sense for him as something to go around – the pole doesn’t carry the same valueThe second video had the barrel and he had an easier time for sure! And it looks like you were looking at the landing spot which really helped. Super!!! You can start to add the counter-motion with you moving forward and still looking behind you and pointing to the landing spot.
I think you might find it easier to do a one-arm serp (dog-side arm) rather than a cross arm serp, because it is easier to run fast forward through them. He is going to be super fast so using one arm and connection (looking at the landing spot) will be easier for you because you will run more easily.
Nice work :)

Tracy
Hi! The start line games are going well!!
First video – remember to ask for tricks and thoughtful behavior as you are getting him ready – his responses will give you an idea of his frame of mind. And that way we can help him focus if he needs more help! He was definitely stimulated (leaning forward in the sit and went Ito the down at one point) but he held the stay really well!!He had more trouble lining up on your right side in the 2nd video, so definitely practice that so he is comfy on both sides. He held his stay really well here too!
Since this is going so well, you can do this in front of a wing or jump or barrel – the pole is fine but I don’t think he really sees it as an obstacle of value 🙂 Sp practicing in front of the other stuff will help transfer it to start jumps 🙂
Nice work!
TracyHi!
>>Ah…the magnet fingers. I remember hearing this concept once or twice before
Yes, the connection affects all the things! And it helps dogs turn tighter, which is high on your priority list 🙂 so ramping up the magnet fingers will help!
>>I actually reviewed each video after trying it and then looked at the next map.>>
YES!!! Click/treat for you!!!!
Here is some boring feedback for ya:
First run looked great, I saw some awesome connection!!!
Second run looked great! More awesome connection and you really drove her through it. She has gotten even faster since I last saw her run sequences!!
Third run looked great!!! Awesome connection, handling timing…. More of that all the time, please! Woot! Hopefully this is a great warm up for your seminar weekend!
Well done on these – and doing it as “one and done” is great because there is really nothing to improved it is great to hit the home run on the first rep 🙂 Yay!
If you wanted to work on these more, you can try sending to the wing from further away to see if you can cue the line from past the tunnel entry (or the opposite – get very close to the wing to see if she can drive ahead of you into the discriminations.
When you are back from the seminar, though, week 2 will be posted 🙂
Great job here and have a great weekend!
TracyHi!
Yes, this weather has been GREAT!
The heel position line up is working well!! He did nicely finding the jump and the tunnel without you moving. YAY! So the next step now is to try it as the discrimination with both. The jump and the tunnel visible to him.
The handling game is going well too! He was able to find the jump and the tunnel according to the cues really well, so the next step now is to add the other positions: either starting really close to the wing so he drives ahead of you, or sending from really far away so you are past the tunnel entry when you are cuing the jump or the tunnel.
>>rarely can get a front cross in with Forrest (same for blinds – only in very rare situations) but I will try with a better send to the wing (now that he no doubt has patterned this exercise). >>
I think with the added distance skills, the fronts and blinds will be much easier! You can work on sending to the start wing from further and further away, so you can get way up the line for the handling.
Great job!!
TracyHi!
>>Should I do the sitting in a chair discriminations next? Re-do the Handling Challenge 1? Try the Combos or all 3 – hahaha? Just wondering if I should approach them in a certain order.>>
You can try the chair game next, and then try the combos 🙂 That way you alternate challenges to give her time to sort them out 🙂
TracyHi!
>> Long fast lines she loves. Turns….not so much.>>
That is good – I would rather have great commitment at this early stage than a dog that runs in collection too much. The turns will come! And also at some point soon, you can work a sequence a few different ways to see exactly what type of turn (extended, moderate, collected) is fastest for her. This is something I do with all of my dogs when they are between 2 and 2.5 years old, to help define how I need to handle them.
This session looks really good! You had a lot of big successes here!!
All of the position 1 starts looked great. She had some trouble when you starting from way ahead, like at :36 – there was not enough connection with you waaaay ahead and moving fast and you felt it in the moment.
The connection at :55 was a little delayed. One way to get he connection right away is to point your fingers all the way back to where her nose actually is (miles behind you) rather than down on the line to where you would like her nose to be (near you). Pointing all the way opens up the connection but pointing down at your side closes it off. At :55, you were pointing to your side so she was not reading it until you pointed your fingers to her actual nose at :56 then she immediately came to the correct side.
I call it magnet fingers 🙂
Starting close to the wing was very easy because you could set the line with connection and motion, she did really well! Yay!
Disconnection with you in position 1 went well!!! It is so lovely to see that she can get it even when you are not perfectly connected – that will help when you are way ahead too. So from the same position, start to add more motion (moving faster.) And also try the disconnection when starting very close to the wing (I don’t think she is ready for it quite yet when you are miles ahead.
Great job on these! You can add in handling game 2!
Tracy
Hi! This session looked really good – she was able to read the difference between the cues when you were connected and then at the end with no strong connection. Super!!!! Most of the reps where big successes.
>>Adopted your “juuuump” cue and slowed down:>>
The jump cue sounded good, make sure to keep the tunnel cue big and loud so it is totally different 🙂
When you are waaaaay ahead like at :27, it is harder for her to get it right because the visual of both obstacles PLUS the motion is very challenging. Be sure to have an exaggerated connection and try it with just walking with you miles ahead 🙂 Then you can add more speed but maintain the big connection.
You can add more motion/speed when you are not as far ahead, she is ready for that.
She had the hardest time on the releases and sending to the start wing! I think it was really hard for her with the jump and tunnel behind her to ‘find ‘ the wing, which is less obvious and far away,so she got sticky with her releases and her commitment.
So, two approaches:
You can move the wrap wing closer for these games (for now) to get her to commit more easily (and tossing a reward to it something will help).
And separately, without the other obstacles nearby, work on sending to the wing from15 or 20 feet away, so it doesn’t feel as odd 🙂 Then we can put it all back together 🙂
Great job!
Tracy
