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Hello and welcome to you and the Bostons!!! I am excited to see Frankie work and VERY happy to hear that Bazinga is feeling better. YAY!!!
Have fun!
TracyHello and welcome back!!!
>.Fusion is struggling with turns when sheis running fast >>
So not getting enough collection to make the correct line?
>>and is getting alot of opposite end of tunnels>>
Is she coming off the line to come towards you, or staying out on the line or moving away to pick up the tunnel? Tell me more!
Have fun 🙂
TracyHello!
>.Yep! He really is 3 1/2!!!!
How did you know I was thinking “wow, how is he 3 1/2 already?” hahaha!!!
Welcome back! This will be a fun summer!!!
TracyHi!
>>Random question: will you always use 15′ tunnels? I see that the 2 tunnels in week 1 are 15′. And so is the tunnel in the “Raise your Game” section.>>
The RYG sequences will always be 15 foot tunnels, to make it all fit 🙂 I will throw in a 20 foot tunnel in the bigger courses throughout the summer.
>>Next time I’ll notice before I build it but maybe could you put obstacle #1 at the bottom of the page, please? Some of us (me, anyway) have very rigid spatial relationship skills. For example, I can only play red in backgammon.>>
I actually had to go back and look at where it all was LOL!! I almost always put it at the bottom of the page because of how our American brains are wired to look at courses (you will see that with the RYG and Jumping courses). The Agility courses have it up top, because of where the teeter ended up. So I think you will see that most of the time, jump 1 will be at the bottom but it will sometimes migrate to help minimize course build changes.
Have fun!
TracyHi! Welcome back! I am excited to see you and the boys! And I think we need to bribe the weather gurus to make sure it is NOT a hot summer 🙂
Enjoy!
TracyHello and welcome back! I am glad you are here and I am looking forward to seeing Coal!! He is all grown up now!!!
Have fun 🙂
TracyGood morning! Looks like a gorgeous, busy weekend!
The parallel path went well, his commitment is looking strong! It will be even easier if you can toss a cookie behind him so that you can be further ahead (or move out to the side) as you start moving to the jump. As you add the cookie throw, like at 1:16, be sure to be super connected so he can see the cue to take the jump (the connection is an important part of that) and so you know exactly when to throw, like at 1:51 where there was better connection so he drove to the jump with fewer questions
>> I can still get a lot better at the timing of my throws!
I think your throws were well-timed (can always be earlier lol) but you were saying “get it” after throwing – so try to say ‘get it’ as soon as you see him looking towards the jump, then throw it. You can say ‘go go go’ as soon as you start to move, then switch to get it.
Rocking horses:
On the outside video: He was fully on board with going around the barrels. but it took you about 30 seconds to sort out what you needed to do in terms of which arm and leg and the FC LOL! So try to walk it without him a few times, so it is very smooth when he comes on the scene.When you did get it rolling, the only suggestion is to add more connection – look at him when you send to the barrel, rather than looking at the barrel. When you looked forward a lot, he was not as sure (like at :45) because the lack of connection turns your shoulders and feet to the other side of the barrel. The connection will point everything to the entry part of the barrel.
You can see that same connection question at :05 of the indoor video. He exited the blue barrel but then as you sent to the green one, you stopped looking at him so he curled in front of you to see the connection (then ended up going to the toy because it was the only obvious thing).
Good job playing with him when that happened – it was not an impulse control error, it was an information-seeking moment. At :41 you had more connection (all he needs is a little) and he went to the barrel.
At 1:01 – you had no connection on the send (looking forward and not at him), he came to the front of you (but not to the toy).
You put the toy in your pocket at 1:23 but it was not the toy… and be careful of putting the toy away because it could be confusing to him: if he has a question and staying engaged like that causes the toy to go away, he could get frustrated and/or lose interest in the toy. So if he ends up at you or at the toy (or at the cookies), reward him and then increase the connection on the next rep.At 1:32 you had much better connection so he nailed it, then at 2:02 coming towards the camera you can see the beautiful connection of your eyes following his head allllll the way around from the send to the exit. Lovely! YAY!! I bet he will be just as smooth even with the toy in your hand, if you maintain this level of connection. SO NICE!!!
You can add your verbals, but be sure to say them to him (connection!) and not to the barrels 🙂
Running contacts:
>> I added a slightly raised platform and started standing up, but I think based on this session I made it too hard too fast.””Yes, I agree that there were too many variable changes all at once. The last session (May 30) had you stationary and low, and this one had you standing, moving a lot, adding distance, and an elevated prop (and crunchy cookies that took a moment to eat, so he was trying to eat and offer all at once). Good job recognizing that it was too much and regrouping!
The second session was only had one variable change from the session you did on May 30’s post – you were holding the mat. I think that was to isolate the front foot hit and that is fine – but same rules apply for the next session:
– just say’ get it’ to both mark the behavior and to tell him where the treat it. The “yes” is like a click, which is not informational in terms of where the treat is, so he looks at you a lot here.
– we need to fade your hand and your position out of the picture as quickly as possible, so rather than hold the mat to get the front foot pounce, attach it to something to give it that angle so he can go away from you to do it.Then we you add more variables – add just one at a time. So if you elevate the prop, that is the only change. And when you stand up…that is the only change for that session. And when you add distance, you can be stationary. Or if you add motion, don’t add distance too 🙂 That will move things along really quickly but only changing one variable at a time.
He did really well at Cabelas! So fun that these places allow dogs and there was definitely a lot to look at! Yay!
>>So far he is the least environmentally-sensitive terrier I’ve had. I hope it stays that way!>>
The 2 things you can add to help him remain this way are:
– social support from another environmentally perfect dog that he knows. For example, my whippet is the most environmentally perfect dog I have ever had (it is genetic, he came that way) so he acts as the Emotional Support Whippet for my 5 month old puppy, who is much more normal about environments LOL!! Are there any incredibly stable dogs that he knows and can be his support in new places?– play those pattern games. Any time my dogs have environment questions, I whip out a pattern game and voila! The sensitivity goes away. Cool stuff!!
>>Reacher gets SO excited about the food and toys and playing that he tends to really do a lot of vertical jumping. Not very well planned jumped either. I am worried about him getting hurt doing this but I’m not sure how to stop it without curbing his enthusiasm. Thoughts?>>
We definitely don’t want to curb his enthusiasm (which is also one of the funniest and most offensive shows I have ever watched LOL!!) 2 suggestions:
in training situations, you can have your cookies and toys prepared before you bring him into the training, you can go right into it without him seeing you get the treats or fiddle with them, etc. That will help reduce the jumping up.and if he does jump up, in life or training – try absolutely zero response to it. No attention, just keep doing what you are doing, as if it didn’t even happen. Don’t withdraw attention or treats or toys (punishment), just carry on with whatever you were doing as if he didn’t jump up at all – then you can really enhance the moment he does NOT jump up by giving him the toys or treats. Let me know if that makes sense.
Great job here!
TracyHi!
His tunnel session looked great too! He definitely loved tunneling LOL!!! And he did really well with being on both sides of you and finding the entry from different angles. Super!!!
Only 2 small suggestions:
– As you start each rep, hold him as you say tunnel a few times then let him go, so he processes the verbal before he moves. This tunnel verbal is easy 🙂 but the other verbals will not be as easy, so holding him as you say the verbal will help establish the whole “dude listen to the verbal before you move” routine that we use as we add harder verbals.
And speaking of verbals… you can add your threadle-side tunnel verbal so he begins learning to differentiate between the 2 cues.
– you can be saying your ‘get it’ for the toy rather than ‘yes’ especially on the threadle side reps, where he was more likely to look at you. So as soon as he turns he head and is committed to going to the tunnel, you can mark that moment with ‘get it’.
>.He loses interest in the Manners Minder and starts curling back toward me when he exits, but drives forward for the toy when that’s the reward>>
Yes, the toy is definitely more exciting! So using the toy worked perfectly here. You can build value for the MM by doing an easy tunnel entry then to the MM for the reward… and as soon as he eats the cookie, you throw the toy 🙂 This can be super useful if you wanted to use the MM for running contacts, because it can build up the drive to it quite nicely.
Great job here!!
TracyGood morning!
Strike a pose is looking great! He was great abut driving into the target hand then making the turn to the reward – exactly what we want the behavior to look like 🙂 And just as I was about to type that you could add a toy as the reward…. Boom! You pulled out a toy. LOL! And that went well too!
Since he did so brilliantly with this (and your mechanics were lovely), 2 things for the next steps:
– you can have the toy on the ground instead of in your hand, so he comes to the target hand then you can mark that with a ‘get it’ or whatever your marker is to cue getting the toy 🙂 This is MUCH harder so if he struggles at all (or if you think he will struggle), you can split the behavior by having the toy dangling to help him understand what to do, before putting it on the ground.
– you can also move this to the concept transfer posted last week:
you can do the concept transfer exactly like you did this session, then move to the toy on the ground after he has seen that on the flat.
Great job!
TracyHello and welcome!!! It will be great fun to see Enzo and Casper 🙂 We can totally break things down into concept work for Casper – it is stuff he is going to need to know! and Enzo can do the hard stuff 🙂
>>HOWEVER, it is the beginning of June and the temperature in Michigan has been flirting with 90. We don’t train outside at 90. So I’m hoping it will ease off a bit.>>
That is INSANITY!!! Here in the hot South, we are still in the mid 70s, maybe a day of low 80s. The good news is that the skills and live class games will all fit in your building, and then you can fit the courses into whenever the weather decides to cooperate.
(And shhhhh, all the stuff should be visible early tomorrow morning :))
Have fun! Stay cool!
TracyHello and welcome to CAMP! It is so fun to see the MaxPup grads here 🙂 His runs look lovely!!!!
>>I also need to figure out my timing of cues – not too early, not too late and preferably not suddenly while he’s in the air which increases our risk of dropping bars.>>
Yep, normal stuff with a 2 year old! We will definitely be looking at cue timing and helping him process cues while also maintaining proper form over the bar: because of his age, it might simply be a little more months for brain development to take him out of adolescence and into adulthood. All of my boy dogs have had the same progression: At age 2, hitting rails if I did a verbal over the bar. At age 3, no problem with the rails when I talk over the bar. For most of the them, I didn’t do any training and I definitely did not punish – I just let them grow up and get experienced. With one of them, I did a few games to help him but I also think he grew up 🙂 My girl dogs did not have this issue at all – gender difference in terms of processing? Or different issue? Or pure luck? LOL! Processing all of this stuff is hard for youngsters!!
Have fun!
Tracy
