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Good morning!
>Here is our worst training session to date. >
I was expecting many things that went wrong but actually… the good stuff FAR outweighed the challenges. And the challenges probably felt icky in the moment but did move the training forward and provide good info.
It looks like these were 3 separate short sessions, with LOTS of good play mixed in. Big click/treat for you on that structure!! Sorry that YouTube stripped the audio but it was still a clear structure to the sessions. Also, was this the first time or one of the first times in that big field? He was a good boy and you did a great job getting engagement in the harder moments.
Session 1: he came out with great tugging and engagement! You were super fun to play with.
What did he see or hear in the distance at :23? Something caught his attention. You are able to get him back and had really good sends to this prop. He still have a small piece of his brain thinking about the distraction but you got the behavior then you got more tugging, then ended at about 90 seconds. Excellent!
2nd session:
>Food in grass is going to be tough – really a fail. Not very engaged due to looking for rewards. >
Yes – that was the challenge in the 2nd session for sure!!
Side note: figuring out the reward strategies is the key part of these early stages, which is why were are using that pillow prop to train on and not something more agility-specific. So if you have a session like this where the reward strategy was the challenge, the behavior you are trying to train (parallel path to the prop) is secondary to the reward strategy.
So yes, two things were happening with the treat in the grass. He had trouble finding it & ignoring the pool of scent floating around, and then he didn’t seem to know that there was going to be MORE reinforcement coming if he found it fast and returned engagement to you.
Since he has lovely food drive, this is good info and we can tweak the reward strategy so training in food in the grass is not an issue.
For finding the treat more easily: what types of treats where you using? I like to use big white pieces of treats. For dogs that love ANY type of food, a Charlee Bear is perfect. For dogs that need higher value treats, you can use string cheese or cold chinks of chicken or turkey. To get the treat-finding going, the treats are also pretty big (about the size of the nail on my thumb).
For returning engagement faster after getting the treat, teach him the pattern game that is here:
When he is very fast with it indoors or in an easy space outdoors, take it to the bigger spaces/taller grass to play it. That can really help speed up the treat finding and engagement when you throw a treat.
He did get faster and faster with finding it and re-engaging as the session progressed, so adding the more easily-found treats and pattern game understanding will totally help.
3rd session – he did great getting back to the toy to start!
>I switched to a bowl at the end>
That was smart – I think the bowl made the start cookie more easily found for sure. The only thing to change there is to show it to him before you send to it. I don’t think he knew it was there or in play, and saw treats in your hands. You can bring it up to it, let him see you place the cookie on it, then move away to the starting point a few feet away (might have to lure him away LOL). That will make for a smooth send to it, so then it will feel easier to get the blinds and other handling moves.
>This was a discouraging session.>
Watch it again! You will see a lot of good things happening. There were probably 3 things that felt icky (distraction in the distance in session 1, and the strategies related to finding the cookies in the 2nd and 3rd session). We get those smoother and then it is clear sailing, not only with these foundation games but also as we add the fancy stuff.
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Hi!
The zig zag went well! Going to his left for the middle jump was easy for him. When you switched sides, going to his right on the middle jump was harder – Great job breaking things down by getting closer then getting more dramatic with your cues 🙂 He ended up doing it really well! When you revisit this game, you can move the wings/bars together so that they are touching – that reduces the distance and adds challenge 🙂
For the get out cue, have the dog-side arm back and rotate bit at the waist so eh can really see the opposite arm cueing the get out. At :06, :29 and some of the reps where he wasn’t sure about takin the jump, your dog side shoulder was a bit closed forward so he didn’t see the cue to the jump.
The cue was clearer at :34 & :39 where he could see more of the opposite arm and you gave the cue earlier (as he exited the start wing). Yay!
You can add a line to the ground, so you don’t also move towards the get out jump. Your line of motion should be the same as the balance reps, so the upper body and the verbal do all the work to cue the get out 🙂
Nice work here!
Tracy
Hi!
The Diamond game looked strong! The blinds look good, nice connection on the exit of the blinds!
> Is it ok to throw the toy or should I be having him grab it from me?>
You can totally throw the toy 🙂
When you added the tunnel before the wings: he did a lot better when you were still moving to the wing when he exited the tunnel (like at :37 & :45) instead of when you were already at the wing when he exited the tunnel. We have a good angle at :53 – when he exited the tunnel, you were just about at the wing with an arm pointing forward, so he didn’t see the connection and hesitated.
And be sure to connect on the way to the tunnel as well – when you pointed ahead to it but didn’t connect (like at :59) that turned your shoulders away from the line so he turned with you. Compare to 1:06 where you were more connected and supported the line more, so he zipped right into the tunnel.
Looking at the get out video:
>Now he is flipping that thing all around & getting both treats out! >
Ha! So funny!!!
The session went great! My only suggestion is to keep moving on the get out – you were tending to stop as you sent him. You kept moving beautifully on the non-get-out reps, so move along the line for the get outs too. He is ready for the advanced level!
Great job 🙂
Tracy
Hi!
>Could i just say “get it” as I let go? Essentially, I am dropping it on the line. I’m not excited by another verbal as I have a ton already.>
I feel that about not wanting more words! You can totally say get it!
>Reese was hysterical. I was using strike and she leapt to get the toy and I let go. She leapt over the toy as it fell on the ground. I tried 4 times and got the same result. >
That is really interesting! I think ‘strike’ has an implied meaning of grab & tug, so the leaping up was probably prep for getting that good grip for tugging. Pretty funny that she jumped over it 🙂 I bet the ‘get it’ works a lot better.
>However, it’s the start of hackberry season as the leaves fall. >
Darn hackberries!!!
>Parallel path was hard as she’s searching for her treat among the hackberries.>
She was hitting the prop but finding the treats did slow things down.
> I tried the forward send. She’s getting the idea, but she’s nonchalant about going to the prop. >
The jazzed up ready dance will help get the excitement into it! You were kind of calm with the ready dance here until the last one where you jazzed it up and she was definitely more into it. And using a toy reward too will help. You can use your ‘get it’ for that too, if she might grab up by your hand too high with a ‘strike’ marker.
>We then tried toy races. First few good. When I used the treat to beat her she just basically quit. >
After watching it – I agree, the first few were great! Then I think she went into cookie mode. It looks like she still had the cookie in her mouth at :53 then it fell out LOL So she didn’t quit, she was just busy eating LOL! Then she didn’t understand why you were wiggling the toy away from her.
>Next effort wasn’t better. You had wanted me to try the same thing if I won. I’m not sure that’s great for Reese. >
I think we can take the food out of it – that might be confusing her. A gentle push back to race will be good. You probably won’t win LOL but you can work on getting her to bring the toy back: as soon as she gets to it, you turn and run the other way (and whip out another toy to help entice her :))
>After I won twice she decided the blue soccer ball was more fun.>
She was focusing on it when you were getting her ready, so when you said get it… she went to get it LOL
So I think if we take the food out of it and throw the toy further and further away, she will maintain her speed and leave you in the dust 🙂
Great job!
Tracy
Hi!
>At the end we were playing and loving and she circled me!!😲.>
Ha! I guess you were the wing? LOL!!
The entire session went well. She was very happy to work the parallel path to the prop! So you can keep adding distance away from it laterally, but also start with her right next to you so she drives ahead to it – that will set you up nicely for the rear crosses which you can add when you revisit it.
Backing up is also going well! She has the idea now, so we can go for more steps backwards. That will work best if you keep your hands at her nose level, so she can keep her head low to stay in motion. Lifting her head is causing her to stop backing up. But to make sure you aren’t bent over and making your back angry: you can sit in one of the chairs out there behind you! They seem perfect because you can keep your hands really low and drop the start cookie right under the chair.
Her barrel wraps were fun to watch 🙂 She most definitely decided she is NOT a lefty LOL! The right turn wraps were great. She needed a little help on the left turns wraps, but did do a bunch of them!
I think you can move to the turn and burn game, and getting a toy involved too! For the right turn wraps, you can play the game as normal because I think it will be easy for her. For the left turn wraps, you can use a bowl on the exit line (you’ll see that added to the description) to help her find those left turns more easily.
Great job here!
Tracy
Hi! Hope you had a fun vacation!
He is getting the idea of the rear crosses for sure! When you didn’t quite have enough pressure to the center of the bar on your running line by running straight for a bit then trying to RC, he was not turning the new direction (like at 1:16 and 1:36). But when you had clear pressure directly to the center of the bar, he read the RC really well (like at 1:23, and 2:03 for example).
One suggestion for the rear cross:
Use GO verbal for the straight line only, not the left or right turns – if you say GO then left/right, it delays the info for the turn and he will go straight.He also did well with the backsides! When you were connection to him and running to where the wing and bar meet, he was able to find it pretty easily. Pointing ahead turned your shoulders to the front side of the bar so he would take it – so remember to keep your arm out of the picture and make a big connection for the backsides.
Also, set a timer on the session – this ended up being something like 40 reps which is a lot! 10 – 15 reps is better 🙂 and you’ll get more speed if he is not getting a ton of repetition.
On the sends and serps – the video had a better view of your upper body so it was easy to see that you had really good serp position (arm back, upper body facing the jump). Super nice! He found th jump really well on both sides, so you probably had good connection on the other side too 🙂
He also did well with finding the jump, especially with the class going on behind him! Yay! Using the toy was very motivating and he really liked it when you were running too 🙂 Bearing in mind how hard the distraction was, you can shorten the session here too by doing fewer reps. When you did too many in a row, he would check out (like after 10 or 11 reps when he ran over to see what was going on. So try for 10-ish reps then be finished – you will get more speed and engagement without him checking out at all.
You can keep changing up your position laterally (getting further away) and also running closer to the tunnel, so he drives ahead of you when he exits.
He also did well with the serp proofing! You did a great job exaggerating the serp arm by moving it and also looking at it a few times to really help bring him in on the serp jump. He much preferred the thrown toy as the reward there – the stationary toy was not interesting but he sure liked it when you threw it. He also did well finding the tunnel when cued. You can g to the next steps here, where you are moving the whole time -lead out less and see if he can read the serp and tunnel cues with you moving faster & faster.
Great job!
Tracy
Hi! I agree, he is liking the better weather for sure!
>I think you’ve learned how to ready my body language! That was totally what was going on!>
Ha! Yes, I could see your thought bubble LOL!
He did a great job driving ahead! For the rear crosses, the best ones were where you were running straight to the center of the bar. (:17 & :30 for example) When you pulled a little to the other side then tried to rear cross, he had questions because you cut in really sharply (:40 for example). So keep mixing in some RCs and driving to the center of the bar.
>I did crash in to him. I didn’t let him get ahead enough. He was ok and didn’t even seem to care. >
Yes, you were definitely driving up the line on that one LOL!! He didn’t mind, but you can avoid the collision by waiting at the start wing a little longer so he has more time to get ahead.
Sends & serps also went really well on both sides! The more you rotated at the waist, the better he did! And he was perfect with the balance reps too. Since this went really well, you can move forward into the serp proofing game in the next set of game 🙂 Great job!
Tracy
Good morning!
She definitely wants to be on the balance disc and offered getting on it immediately. Yay! But you can see she was not entirely comfortable with all 4 feet on it. There are 2 reasons for that:
The balance disc is over-inflated, which makes it hard for her baby body to balance on it. When she had all 4 feet on it, she was not fully able to stabilize it.
It is a relatively small disc compared to her length, so she had to compress herself to be on it. She was definitely not able to balance comfortably in a slightly hunched/compressed state.
Easy fix: take out half of the inflation for now! That will be easier to balance on and as she grows up and gets stronger, you can add more of the inflation back.
For the rocker board: I agree that having it be a bit predictable and not move much and only going one direction was a good choice. It was propped up really well at the beginning so it moved a tiny bit but she was still super happy to get all 4 feet on it. And it is super big, so she didn’t have to compress herself.
She was pretty hilarious, getting in the way by standing on the board when you were trying to adjust the tip LOL! You can keep gradually giving her more tip to this, she seemed to have no concerns at all.
I was going to suggest adding tugging on it, but then you did it LOL!! Small suggestion for that: keep the toy as low as possible so she can really pull back on it. And you can add a little bit of gentle tapping on her sides (if she likes that and doesn’t find it offensive) because that really helps with weight shift during tugging.
Wrapping: She is doing well with the laundry basket and with you standing! Super! My only suggestion is to move the bowls back to by your feet, to fade them a little and to give her more room to wrap.
You can move on to the turn and burn game! Check out the part where you use a bowl as part of the transition to that – not sure if she will need a bowl for that or not, but it is an option.
Great job!
Tracy
Good morning!
>We use treats inside. He doesn’t have problems with it – he engages to me well but oftentimes he is not interested in treats outside – but toys work everywhere.>
For using treats in places where he can see them & eat them – you can do a treat then a tug, then a treat, then a tug. We really really want to be able to use treats because of how it will help his central nervous system be in a relaxed state (toys are not the same for this). So the toys can be used to bring up the value of treats, with the long-range goal of being able to use treats more.
The treats will be very important for teaching him calm demeanor around other dogs and agility in a variety of non-working, lower arousal situations: This can include when he is waiting for his turn in the ring because he might be in that environment for a while and we can’t tug the whole time. Or, when you have to navigate him through a crowd of dogs, the pattern game with treats can help him assess the environment and ignore other dogs completely 🙂
>It’s impossible for him to see and find treats outside,>
Two adjustments to make for when you are outside:
You can do short sessions with bigger, really exciting treats (so they are more visible) and don’t throw them far so they are easier to find.
You can use your shoe! Put the cookie on your shoe for this game rather than in the grass.
He is doing well with his foot target! It was sliding under him, so to protect his shoulders you can put something on the bottom of the target so it doesn’t slide (pieces of a rubber mat taped or glued to it will be perfect).
For the rear crosses, you can have it further away so you have room to get behind him earlier and so he has room to run. That will get the rear cross line visible to him sooner (just before he gets to the prop)
He really likes the backpack wraps! Now that you are a several feet away from it, give him a clear indicator that he should go to it – stepping to it will likely be all he needs. A cue is good to add at this stage because we will not be wanting him to offer going to a jump when we will be wanting him to do a stay (which we start adding very soon). When your foot moved forward, he had no questions. When your dog side leg was behind you, he was unsure if he should go or not.
The bow is very cute and going very well! Be sure that he is not moving until after you say the ok cue – he was moving early here on many of the reps, especially when your hand was moving. So to really isolate the release (which will extend the duration of the bow): make sure that nothing is moving (Benny or your hand) until after you say “ok”. It might help to put the cookie on the target and leave your hand on it at first, so you can say ok then move it away. Then you can add in moving the hand away so the cookie is visible – then stop moving the hand, then say ok. That will help unpair the hand movement from the release.
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
>And yes this generation has no accountability.
🙈- I have to show up to lecture in person but the students don’t..>It is really interesting and VERY different from when I was in school back in the Stone Ages. I mean, lots of us didn’t show up to the 100 person lectures back then 🙂 but we still had to take tests on time and get papers in on time, etc. I wonder what made this professor feel like she needed to extend the testing period, almost doubling it?
Anyway – this session went great!!! She was really strong about finding her prop on the parallel line. She was better at looking forward when she was on your left than when she was on your right. That might have been because of a side preference, or it might have been because there was more room on your left (walking away from the camera). Either way, when she is on the right, be sure to get the ‘get it’ marker and reward tossed ahead early so she looks early.
One thing I noticed was that when after she ate the start cookie, if you were moving: she moved directly to the prop. If you were standing still when she looked up from the start cookie – she went to you. Motion is the cue! So start moving before she finishes cookie (or just as she finishes it) and that will help cue the behavior.
She was so cute when you didn’t reward because she didn’t hit it – she took herself back and smacked it LOL!
You can keep building up distance and also you can start right next to her so she can drive ahead of you – that will set you up nicely for the rear crosses 🙂
Great job!
Tracy
Good morning –
This will get easier when you do the FC and run the other way earlier and earlier. That will put you further and further ahead of her, so you can judge the timing of releasing the toy because she will be behind you. Because she will be running and won’t have caught up to you yet, her feet will be on the ground.I am not sure about the strike marker – theoretically, yes, it will be fine. But if she is conditioned to leap up to get near your hand when she hears it (because it predicts tugging) then you might get more leaping built in. I just make a noise when I am letting go of the toy (a shhhhhhh noise) so the dog knows it is different than getting ready to tug.
Tracy
Hi!
This went really well! She was really driving to the barrel and it didn’t seem to be a problem for you to do the FC earlier and earlier. Yay! Keep moving the line around so you can keep doing the FC and leaving earlier and earlier 🙂> just used okay as a release. I don’t want to add right and left wrap verbals yet as I don’t think she really understands the wrap part well enough yet>
I think she is very close to you being able to add them! You can try seeing how she does if you start by holding her collar, give her a little ready-ready excitement moment, then let go and step to the wing. If she drives to the barrel when you do that, you can start adding the wrap verbal while you are holding her collar before you let her go.
>I’m happy to reports no hands were harmed in the making of this video! >
Yay! Dropping the toy worked well! You can let her run through it even more, so the toy really never lands on the ground:
To get her running through it, don’t drop it as early. Let her *almost* get her mouth on it while you keep running and dragging it, then you just let go and keep running. That will prevent the hard stops when the toy is on the ground and also will condition her to grab a lower part of the toy (rather than up by your hand) because she won’t be preparing to decelerate and get a grip for tugging.
Great job here!
Tracy
Hi!
>yes, I have another well-trained papillon Kite. Kite doesn’t like starts (he sniffs at starts) but we can try.>
Kite is a possibility, and maybe he thinks this game will eb fun and doesn’t want to sniff.
Also, be sure to teach Benny the pattern game here:
This game will be critical for helping him ignore other dogs in the agility environment (and anywhere, really) especially when you are in close quarters. It is a food-based game, but you can also incorporate tugging after each treat, and also play it with 2 toys.
Backing up:
He is starting to get the idea of moving backwards on the ground! You can keep fading out your movement towards him, so he can backup independently of you also having to move.>I tried the elevated platform >
I think the platform was too high and angled for his size and age – do you have something lower? Like you mentioned, he was happy to get on it moving forward but avoiding backing up onto it. Having him start with all 4 on (feel free to lure him into that position), then lure front feet off. Then reward for putting the front feet back on. This is more like what you did at 2:55 and 3:10 – that will make it easier to get backing up onto it, but for now use something lower even if it is a mat. We don’t need it to be angled, it just needs to be something with a different surface as a ‘destination’.
Restraint to toy behind the wing: he is really starting to focus forward on the line here!
>could not take the wing if the could see the toy on the opposite side.>
Yes, this is when he would default to the easier left turns (these were all right turns here). He seemed to have an easier time with the impulse control when the toy was in your hand than with it on the ground near the wing. That worked nicely and so did starting him closer.
Other things to try:
Does he have a ‘get it’ marker which means to go take the toy? And without the marker, he should not take the toy. I think the verbals here were all the wrap verbal and praise, so this is a great opportunity to strengthen the stimulus control on the toy: cue the look for the wing, and you can use the wrap cue: then when he is correct, use the ‘get it’ marker. That can make a big difference.The other thing to play with is teaching the concept to fluency on his stronger side first. That can actually be a lot more successful because he doesn’t have to think about turning right, he only has to think about ignoring the toy. When he is very good at ignoring the toy turning to his left, he will have an easier time ignore it while turning to his right (right turns take more brain power!)
Looking at the lateral distance to the pool noodle:
>he needed time to build more value and understanding for this strange object. I think he got better this time – more focused on the target. >
Yes! Letting the pups sleep on it really helps. Latent learning is great! Take a look at the rear crosses in the advanced level – we can use this to teach him rear crosses.
>I tried to toss treats on the towel – no interest. He can switch to treats to release the toy. But yes, he knows ball throw game – just run forward and back to toss balls.>
We really want him to have interest in treats too, because food as a reward in high arousal training will be very helpful especially in these early stages of training. So you can make eating the treat the game, that gets rewarded with running and the toy throws.
You can start with a really small (easy to swallow) high value treat on the towel, with you next to him: when he eats it, the game can start! Run and throw the toy, big party. You will see that the food value increases dramatically and very quickly because it takes on the value of the running and the toy. This is something we do all the time with Border Collies and BC-mixes 🙂
The treat might need to be incredibly high value (cheese, steak, or similar things in small quantities) to get this started but it will be worth it to have food in the toolbox as a reward strategy in all situations.Great job here!
Tracy
Hi!
He is starting to get the idea here! He wasn’t entirely sure of offering to go around the cone (which might be newer than his original wrap object?) while also ignoring the toy here, plus he kept wanting to offer to his left (good to know he is a lefty :))
So you can help him out: you can still use the toy as the reward, but give him the focal point of the empty bowl at the exit line. That way he can take his eyes off the toy, drive to the bowl, then you do the FC and run for the toy as the reward. That will get him driving around for the Turn And Burn game, plus it will be easy to fade out 🙂
Nice work here!
Tracy
