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Hi!
The mountain climbers went really well! The board was not whipping and the bread was behaving itself. And yes, I can see him wanting to be sure he has found every crumb LOL!!
He is looking very happy to do the teeter so slow down the adding of the tip for now until you see him running up the board at a gallop and shifting his weight at the very end. He is noticing the changes and slowing down at the middle, so you can keep things the same for several sessions.
Bang game: He is happy to smack the board down! But he doesn’t really understand the and position – he is looking up at you and which is turning his body. So for now, as he is leaping on, you can be putting the treat into position on the target then release him pretty quickly. The next game we add here is about the end position 🙂
The added distance on the blind cross game definitely ramped up the challenge! When he was on your right side, he was having trouble seeing the commitment and either was going past the wing wide when you were late with the BC, or was pulled off the wing when you were trying to be earlier but where not connected enough to also show the commitment.
>Not too sure why he suddenly decided chasing me was a fun idea. He was fully intending to bite my leg at one point.>
He was not chasing you when he was coming off the wings – the connection broke too early to start the blind (he was not committed to the wing) so he was following handling – but yes, I think he was planning on a tooth hug at 1:40ish. That was probably a combination of frustration from the bloopers and possibly him being tired.
The frustration was possible because even though he got cookies for the other reps, he knew it was not quite right because you stopped moving. So – keep going to the end of the sequence then reward.
Your connection and timing when he was on your left was a lot better – so he didn’t get frustrated on that side.
And about being tired – how long after his seminar experience was this? It is entirely possible that his training after the seminar (plus being at a seminar all day) tapped his brain energy and depleted him, so he had nothing left here. Generally, if it is within 48 hours with young adolescent dogs, we see the tiredness creep in.
So be sure to add lots and lots of decompression time (and less training after something big). Welcome to adolescence LOL!
And, revisit the Find My Face game from MaxPup 1! This is the game that gives the pups something to do when they are having a BIG MAD besides bite us 🙂
The double crosses went really well – you were quick to show the side changes and ran a great line so he knew where to go on both the BC-BC reps and the FC-BC reps too! Super! And you ran them all the way through to the end so in his mind, it was 100% correct so there was no frustration at all from what we could see here.
He is doing well with treading the tandem/threadle wrap cues! You didn’t converge at all – yay! You can be closer to the wings to set the line – being a bit far was hard for him to get tight fast lines to the wing (he was checking with you first based on your distance then going back to it) . On the very last rep at 1:10, you were pretty close to the wing and not converging – he looked at the cue then sent himself to it even with you a little behind. SUPER!!!! That is ideal 🙂
Great job here!
TracyGood morning!
Very fun that they let you play on the course after the seminar! I worked with Jaakko about 10 years ago when OneMindDogs was very popular – is he still teaching the OMD style or has that evolved?
Aelfraed made me do a happy dance. Yes, it as cool that he could do the handling stuff and find the lines… but the most happy-making part was he did it in a new location, different footing, etc, without any problems at all. He was excellent and that is HUGE!!! Yay!!!!
Tracy
Good morning!
The bang game set up is pretty perfect here! The height gets added very gradually but that is after we work on getting he end position without the treats already being there 🙂 More on that coming soon!
Dog on left serp – really nice serp position and movement and rewarding on one jump! And great job angling the jump after he missed it the first time (I think he missed it because he needed you further ahead and didn’t quite know how to change his lead to get it with you a little behind him).
He got it on the next rep with the angled jump but also the toy on the ground – on the last rep you were a little further ahead and threw the toy, which was spot on!
The dog on right reps also looked strong – he was already turning the correct direction as he landed from the first jump. He found 2 jumps with the toy visible and without the toy visible. Great!
You can add more speed – slow jog, maybe running if he does well – to the serps, opening the angles of the jumps up if it is hard for him with more speed.
Great job here! See you soon 🙂
Tracy
Good morning! These are all going really well!
The set point is off to a good start! I think the distance is good, she was bouncing nicely. To get her pushing from her rear more, add a couple of things:
– the first bar should be really low, 4 inches, and she should start really close to it with her front feet less than 6 inches from it
– the second bar should also be low, 8 inches,
– and the manners minder can be another 6 feet or so away from jump 2. And if she is doing well with the moving target pre-game, you can use that to replace the manners minder.She also did well with the wind in your hair game!! Since she was easily able to find the line to the jump, you can add more distance between the barrels and the jump. And with the added distance, you can run up the line with her instead of sending. You can move the barrel over or send to it from further away so you have more room to run past the jump.
You can also move the MM further or use a thrown reward instead.
She was just about perfect with the barrel versus wrap proofing here when you broke it down! If she was having trouble, you can add more distance between them. Then line her up, hold her collar and say the verbal 4 or 5 times – then let her start moving just by letting go and without you moving.
When that is easier-
You can add the advanced level where you start in the curve of the tunnel and send her past the barrel into the tunnel and as she exits the tunnel you can cue the barrel wrap.On the smiley face game:
She was understanding the smiley face really well and found the barrel consistently on your right side. Yay! On your left, she needed more eye contact from you to know to go to your left side. So you can be more upright in your handling (no need to lean over as much) and you can point to her eyes and look at her. That should keep her on the correct side (be sure to reward even if there is a handler blooper 😀)Looking at all of the games, i think she is avoiding the collar holding because she is getting moved around by the collar which is uncomfortable. So rather than reach for her or move her by the collar, you can line her up with a cookie then once she is in position, hold her collar to start the next rep. That will also help her get used to lining up when you use a stay!
Nice work here!
Tracy
Hello!
>It is really a challenge for me to think about all when moving. >
It is definitely hard, which is why we start with wings and one or two jumps instead of courses or sequences. The more we practice the mechanics, the easier it gets. It is like learning to play piano 🙂
>I feel that Sammy is reacting very strong on missing connection. And Jazz much more on my lag of movement and my inappropriate deceleration.>
Based on what I see in their trainings so far, I agree! Sammy gets mad when he cannot see the connection. And Jazz slows down on deceleration because leaving you is hard for him.
>Please do not laugh! In the 2 jump exercise I spook out the word “blind” loud, as cue for me;-). It should remind me to use the opposite arm.>
I say this a few times too when I am really concentrating on the wing games. If it helps, then we do it 🙂
>Whenever he presume that I am not follow his line the release to the obstacle is slow – even to a tunnel. It is much more obvious when he starts directly next to me. Whenever I release him on a position behind me, he is faster. Sammy does not have this issue.>
It might not be about how you trained them, it might be about their individual differences and how they feel at the start. If Jazz is slower to begin when you are close to him, you can play with different ways to start: being silly and in a crouched position, saying ‘ready set GO!’ to get him excited, or a behind-the-back start so he is moving immediately.
One of my dogs use to be nervous on the start line and freeze or release very slowly, so I taught her this different way to start when I am close to get her moving faster:
Looking at the video:
Sammy’s runs looked great! You had lovely timing and your connection was spot on (you had your arm coming across your body here!)Looking at the rep with the 2 blinds from 1:01 – 1:10: you had all the proper elements. Strong sends to the wings, excellent position on the line for the blinds, excellent connection on the exit of the blinds, and your timing was great!
I can see how Jazz didn’t want to send to the wing as fast as Sammy did, from as far away and without much movement to it. That made your timing not quite as easy as it was with Sammy but your connection was great so the blinds still looked really good.
At 1:32 and 1:43 you took one or two more steps to the wing and he sent to it with a lot of speed. At 2:24 and 2:44 you started him way back and ran a few steps to the start wing, and he really ran fast to it. You can plan for this by starting as far back as possible then run a few steps forward to the start wing or jump.
And to keep building up the reward and value for it, you can throw the reward even sooner – you can start by throwing the reward as soon as he is looking at the line, before he even gets to the wing. That can isolate moving away from you as the rewarded behavior, so he learn to really drive away to whatever obstacle is out there (not just a wing or jump).
He was very fast between the jumps though because your motion was great and he loves to chase your line. The connection looked really clear so he was happy to find the next line after the blind too – super nice!!!
Great job – let me know what you think!
Tracy
Good morning!
>We haven’t focused on her stay at all. She’s also doing conformation which just started so I just finished her show training. I don’t have a problem training sit and stand, I just ran out of time. >
Perfect! No issues, just lack of time with all sorts of other things going on 🙂 You can start to show it to her as part of her training – I am sure she will learn it really quickly.
>Her toe is 100 percent fine. >
GREAT news! Yay!
>I moved the bar up to 8” and moved the treat and train 4 ft further to 12 ft away. Growth-wise she’s as big as my adult girl at the bottom end of our standard. I know her growth plates aren’t closed but I don’t see her growing a whole lot taller. Maybe an inch. I love what I see here!>
I agree – this is looking lovely! She is working her mechanics with a ton of balance and consitency here. Played in slow motion, the reps were all lovely and also pretty identical. Consistent mechanics are super important too and she is doing well! She will add power as we get you out ahead with the moving target 🙂 You can do it if someone can hold her without getting her too revved up. Or it can wait until she has the stay – she is young so we have plenty of time.
Looking at the Smiley Face game:
>About halfway through I realized I was watching her to see what she’d do vs actually cuing what I wanted.>
This summarizes the hardest part of running young dogs LOL!!! We need to cue them but also don’t fully know what they are going to do so we watch the too 🙂
On the first couple of reps you were very connected but moving in deceleration, so she came off the wing the instant you turned. When you added more motion and a touch more acceleration, she committed really well because the acceleration supported the lines to the wings better.
>I’m not sure how my connection was though.>
I think your connection was really good!! Very direct while staying in motion and your arms were not flinging all around 🙂 It was especially clear on the exit of the FCs – super nice connection on the new side. And you got your verbals going and said them to her directly which is actually really helpful in maintaining great connection.
Since this went really well, you can spread out the wings to add more running (she will love that :)) and adding the tunnel when you have time is good too.
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
Serpentine game –
He needed that first moment to remember to come in over the jump and not just go to the toy 🙂 He was definitely in a toy mood LOL!2 jumps – I think this is the first time we have put this skill on 2 jumps. Remember that an error on course is a human error because the dogs are reading our cues so you will want to reward him. For example, at 1:53 you were on his line to the front side of the 2nd jump (blocking his path) so he correctly went to the backside of jump 2. Good boy – don’t withhold the reward in those moments. Note how you moved over on the next rep (2:09) and he got the front side The handler line is a bit further away from the serp jump so you are not blocking the line to jump 2.
Something similar happened at 3:55 – you had big arm swing to bring him in on the serp jump then you turned your shoulder forward and stepped forward… directly to the backside. Reward the dog! The serp arm should be pretty stationary, no need to swing it back and forth because it sends the dog to the wrong line. You can keep it locked back until Brioche turns to the correct line, then release it. The line of motion is straight, no need to step to the jump because the can send to the backside too. He was definitely confused and started sniffing as you were adjusting jumps. You had a little less arm swing/step on the next rep but we will want to have none 🙂 The easier angle of the 2nd jump prevented the backside but he will find the front side nicely on the tighter angles when you run forward with your arm back.
The mountain climbers are going well! He seemed perfectly happy with the added tip and so you can keep adding more in the smallest increments.
>she was asking him to lie down at the end of the teeter while he ate the food. You haven’t mentioned teaching that behavior so just asking if there is a reason to do that?>
I don’t use or teach a down at the end of the board, for multiple reasons. Here are the top 3 reasons:
– a down position at the top of the board as it is moving makes it harder for the dog to maintain balance as the board is dropping. The standing position in the weight shifted crouch is much better for balance on all of the different movements of different teeters, especially is something unexpected happened. It is much easier (and safer) to control the board from a standing position than from the down.
– a down at the top of the board shifts the weight too far back along the board, actually, which results in slower teeter times. And the release is quicker too, and more balanced because the dog doesn’t have to weight shift forward to get out of the down.
– the down is almost never really maintained when the dog is running courses. They might use the down in training, but people don’t ask for it to be done, or they stand there and stare at the dog until it finally does do the down. Having it as a possibility but not always asked for or maintained is confusing to the dogs and ultimately results in a slower teeter performance with less confidence about where to go and what to do.
For the bang game – you’ve added tip too quickly on this one 🙂 Have two inches of elevation off the ground at the most for now, to get the mechanics for both of you. Your toes should be lined up at the very bottom of the board (they were lined up with the ‘com’ of the madagility .com) so he as starting too far back from the end.
And with the board being a little too high and starting too far back he is being careful and stepping into position. The goal with the lower board and having you start right at the end is that he lands in position right at the end of the board with no steps to it. It will be a super quick explosive movement, so leave the board low to the ground until you see that happening. I think it will happen pretty quickly!
>Also, I happened to have yellow duct tape so I am using that. >
The yellow duct tape worked well for the bang game. It is also fine to have a contrasting color that is easy to see for now, so he drives to it and doesn’t watch you when he is moving to the end from further away like on the mountain climbers game.
Nice work here!
Tracy
Good morning!
>In the beginning is our morning session (Skizzle in a jacket) – then our afternoon session. It’s almost 2 different dogs with the speed difference.>
Totally different! Maybe morning Skizzle didn’t like the outfit or the grass being colder? Afternoon Skizzle definitely liked the afternoon environment better 🙂 And morning Skizzle gave you more time to work out the handling to then apply it to afternoon Skizzle 🙂
>This one was fun, because I couldn’t reconcile how you were moving and how your dog was moving (why didn’t the dog end up between you and the tunnel?) >
It is definitely a tricky handling skill. The key to the double blinds is mainly in the quickness of doing the blinds (and keeping your arms out of the way). You did a great job with this and he had no questions! The other key is running the line directly to the wing you wanted and not going towards the tunnel at all – you also nailed it, your line was spot on! So he was able to get it really well.
>In the afternoon session, my focus was on keeping my arms at my sides – and I think this went better. >
Yes, and that helped especially because he was moving faster 🙂
>There were still questions when I decelerated too early before the wing, but when I continued closer to it, Skizzle read it well.>
The questions I saw where when he didn’t commit to the wing at :44 & :54 – you turned a little too early so he came with you (:54 looked like a blind cross starting so he started changing sides). Compare to the connection at 1:00 where you were looking at him the whole time as you moved and he got to the wing really well! You were decelerated at 1:00 but still moving and definitely connected so he found the wing. Yay!
Great job here! You put all the elements together really well!
Tracy
Good morning!
At one point on the video you said something like doing the FCs on all 4 wings is HARD! I agree – I think this is the hardest commitment game we do in this class.
This session went REALLY well! He was committing super nicely (moving forward for a step or two before the rotation helped a lot). And working through doing all 4 wings in a row made things a lot easier when you did 2 wings in a row then the race tracks around the outside – those looked super!!!!
As he gets ahead of you on the race tracks like at 3:17 – maintain connection by looking at him and you don’t need to support with your arm. You can look at him and run run run with bent sprinter arms. When you are looking ahead and not at him and using an extended arm, he looks up at you for more info. When you had more connection like you did at 4:10-4:13, he stays out on the line really well! The bent sprinter arms will make it easier to keep up with his speed 🙂
He was sometimes pinging forward on the very first send (not going to the wing behind you) because you were looking at him or looking ahead. When you looked behind to the wing he committed better but also he was anticipating what was next 🙂 so holding position at the wing so he could get moving to the wing you wanted helped a lot.
The only other thing to add to this game (or any of them) is to ask him to chill for a moment as you are planning it (so he isn’t offering or circling you like a baby shark 😂. I think this chill will help him not be so grabby with the to. It can be a down in the grass, or a cot or something that he can hang out on while you plan the next rep.
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
> No one has ever told me that and I think this is VALUABLE information for this loco coco 🙂 The timing of your inforamtion could not have been more perfect.>
I am glad you enjoyed the adolescence info LOL!! It is like group therapy for those of us with adolescent dogs. I currently have 5 dogs that are still considered adolescent… all intact males. Please send thoughts and prayers LOL!!!!! But the knowledge about what is going on in their brains really helps us be able to help them!
>. While we took turns appropriately, I also had to remind myself to give her ‘breaks’ while training too. Talk about multitasking- listening to the instructor, playing food games with Sunnie (sometimes we did middle after she did some run abouts checking out the environment) and remembering what the next “sequence” was LOL! >
Good for you!!!! And gathering her up and taking breaks are so critical.
>The Kid gave it her ALL every round. Her tongue was hanging out after each round 😀>
Awwww good girlie! She is so fun!!!
>My mechanics went out the window after the 1st crash, I was processing- “what the heck happened, how do I fix this, we don’t want ‘bad’ moves” While I was doing that- I got consummed with it- I wasn’t present for anything else>
Well, speaking of adolescent dogs… sometimes we are working to teach them something but they learn something else. And we see it in the next session, which is what happened here:
In the last session she learned that you love it when she goes to the other side of the barrel and comes back over the bar. She is turning so brilliantly that she is pushing the barrel… because it is easy to push to get to the reward faster. It is as if she sorted out that the fastest route back to you is to push the barrel outta her way. Clever! I admit to chuckling while also totally feeling your pain LOL!! She had a little bit of trouble switching sides, so that is a good place to take a break and then start the other side in the next part of the session.
>How should I handle the crashing going forward? Don’t worry about it, show you my video and we go from there OR something else???>
Always feel free to show the video! And if an undesirable behavior is *increasing* then we stop and figure out why. In this case, I just think the soft barrel is easy to push and maybe kinda fun to push 🙂
So to help her NOT do that, I think we should switch what she is wrapping: Do you have a big cone or an upright suitcase/roller bag or anything that is very stable and won’t move if she pushes it? Those will provide the same visual, but pushing them actually will delay her from getting back to you, so I bet she chooses the more efficient path of going around them without touching them.
> I also got wrapped up in Sunnie looking at me, is that ok or should she be looking forward?>
For a one-jump backside game, she doesn’t have to look forward until released because there are two options to look at: the front (bar/towel) or the back (around the barrel).
> (this got stuck in my head too because it was a discussion at our lesson,teaching it, labeling it, I know we did alot of this way back when she was itty bitty!) Meanwhile at the lesson she was focused forward every.single.time. LOL! 😀>
The main place to teach it/cue it is on the first jump, from a staym to the front of a jump. That is easy and we do emphasize that a bit more coming up. But the cue for that is only for the front side (I point my hand to the jump and some people have a verbal cue). Was the forward focus at the lesson to the front side? Forward focus to the backside requires the dog to know to look into nothingness (the invisible line to the backside) so we don’t really need that right now.
Nice work here on these session even though she threw you some curve balls! Let me know how she does with something un-pushable like a cone or suitcase 🙂
Tracy
Good morning! I somehow missed this yesterday – sorry!!!!
>Most of the BC I was moving “big picture” in the correct direction. >
Turning the correct direction on a blind (away from the do) is 95% of the skill! The other 4% is connection after the blind (the final 1% is running the right direction towards the line).
You did a great job here of getting the turn the correct direction! Yes, sometimes it ended up putting him back in the tunnel based on the line you were on, but that is fine and he got rewarded and had a grand time running through the tunnel 🙂
>>A positive is that he made all the wraps when I was making the BC. And like yesterday’s effort, I need to continue moving forward during the decel so he commits.>
>Yes! He was great! You were running a very clear line which really helped.
And you had a lot of lovely connection after the blind too! The only thing to add (where he had the most questions here) was the send to the wing after the blind. Ideally, you will keep connected and step towards it, rather than use your arm to point to it. The arm point turns your shoulders away from the line so inexperienced dogs like Skizzle will pull off.
For example, you had great connection on the exit after the blind (:18) but then sent with the hand to the next wing. That actually turned you away from the line and with the toy moving, he came off the line.
The toy is not creating the question, though, it is definitely the pointing turning your shoulders – he had the same question on the other side when your hand was empty.Separately, you can take the toy or cookies and a wing, and pay him really well for going to it even when you point at it 🙂 We humans do like to point at things, so we can build value for taking the wing when we point too 🙂
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
The name call did work to get a slightly tighter line on the tunnel exit without bleeding off speed!
For the super tight line needed for the TW, you can call him more urgently so he turns a little more. He did REALLY well with his threadle wraps!!!! You were converging towards the wing a bit while cueing them – I don’t think he needs the convergence to get the commitment, plus when a bar goes in it might look like the motion for a threadle slice (even though the hand and verbal are very different). So you can try staying wherever you are when you cue it to see how independently he can get it – that will also end up giving you amazing position on course!!!
The circle wraps also looked really strong here – great commitment!
He was a good boy at 1:15 when he didn’t know which side to be on when heading to the tunnel (not quite enough connection there). You did a little shoulder dip at 1:30 which worked great to really show which side you wanted!
If you want more challenge on this one… spread everything out so there are 7 meters between everything. That will require you to add more acceleration and decel to the cues!
He was really driving up the teeter here! The straighter the line you can set for him, the better so he doesn’t have to change leads at all getting on the board.
I admit to being jealous that he got to eat croissant. YUM!
The board has a lot of whip to it which creates extra movement and noise – now that there is more tip, you can pad the top of the sawhorse where the board hits to absorb some of the movement and sound, so he doesn’t wonder about the whip of the board. And that will help the treats stay where the need to be and not fall off LOL!
Great job!
Tracy
Good morning!
Yes, the distractions didn’t bother her at all here! Yay!
She is doing well with the teeter – but I think she did say the tip expanded a bit too much for that session by slowing down a lot and getting careful. So you can do two things along with the straighter entries:
– play lots and lots of tug before each rep so she stays really excited about it
– when you add tip, add the tiniest bit, get the big reward at the end… then end the session 🙂 We don’t want her to say “wait, that was weird!” and slow down, so you can end the session and throw her toy. Then start the next session where you left off.Nice work!
TracyGood morning! Warts and bloopers are fine as long as the dog keeps getting rewarded like he did here 🙂
This is a really hard game for sure! What was making your brain want to do a FC on the 2nd wing was that you were decelerating to send him to it: and the decel makes the FC feel very natural and the blind feel weird. When you didn’t really decelerate into the 2nd wing: 2 blinds! Yay! The best reps of that were :45 – :50 and 1:30 – 1:35. There were some other really good reps where you actually do the first blind perfectly but maybe you thought it was too easy and did another one before the 2nd wing 🙂
Your connection was really strong overall, and that helped! You can try this game with a toy scrunched up in each hand, so you don’t have to think about which hand it is in for each blind 🙂
It might have felt weird or awkward, but this really well went to get the quickness of the blinds going. It is a fun game to whip out every now and then to keep mechanics sharp.
Nice work here!! Onwards to the one jump games 🙂
Tracy
Good morning!
>I’m going to have to work on bringing my arms in…..I’m old enough that I remember when we all learned “airplane” blinds>
OMG RIGHT!!!! Especially on blinds. Eek!!!! That is a funny memory LOL
This session went really well!
Connecting strongly on the send to the far wing (:15 and :38 for example) really helped propel him away from you which made the timing of the blinds SPOT ON.
His commitment to the jump is great! You were seeing him exit the far wing, you cued the jump and started the blind. It would have been very easy for him to skip the jump but Sly understands his commitment so he had zero questions. SUPER!!!! That made for gorgeous timing for finishing the blind before he took off.
Something you can add as you finish the blind is more connection directly to him. For example, at :41 & :53 you were looking down near your side but not at him, so he is looking at you as he is coming over the jump and not at the line. He still finds the line because he sees the shoulder turn, but adding more connection back to his eyes will show the line to him sooner, so he will be able to nail the line without having to look at you (which results in even faster times).
Great job here!!!
Tracy
