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Holy bananas he looks great!!!! And he also loves the cheering crowd #Showman
Hooray for frisbee freedom in public! He looks so good here <3Hi!
Definitely an interesting session! He was largely successful, which is good! Also, VERY clever to tie your toy to a rope to reel it back in without having to stand up. I bow to you!!!So we can look at the little trouble spots.
First up, you mentioned that he might bark at you at tunnels on course. And you got some of that here (coming off the tunnel and barking). I think we can rule out a handling error because you were not moving here LOL! I think we need to reward the tunnel more specifically, meaning the reinforcement comes immediately at the end of the tunnel. In this training, shorten the tunnel so he can see the exit. And then as he starts heading to it correctly, you can either throw the toy so he sees it land on the other side of the tunnel, or you can have your MM out there and use that.
When running courses, reward the tunnels A LOT by throwing the reward at the end of it
That’ll help too!Rewarding the tunnel differently (short tunnel, toy or MM visible at the end) will help a lot in this training with the barking.
Another thing that will help us if you use reset cookies after every rep, successful or not. So if he gets it right, throw the reward or click the MM, then call him back and give him a cookie.
If he gets it wrong? Call him back and give him a cookie. Then, if needed, you can get your next reward ready while you are holding him: that kept him calm and ready to work. If you left him hanging out on his own while you got the next reward ready, he would bark.
And if he barks for some reason? No worries, call him back and either have him come to hand for the cookie, or throw it behind you to get him moving. I think the resets will help a whole lot, to get him in the groove of just coming back and lining up, no matter what happens. 🙂
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
This was an interesting session – she started off happy to get on the lines but then got stickier as the session went along. I thought your connection was strong, and you had nice low arms! So keep doing that 🙂 And she definitely loved your high energy verbals!When she was getting more sticky, it might have been that she was getting fatigued. But i also think she was watching you intently for cookies 🙂 All of the reinforcement came right near you, in the form of cookies dropped from your hand. So when your handling was very clear, she took the jumps but still had a tiny eyeball on you, which made it harder to get her to commit independently. And when you were not totally perfect, she didn’t take the jump like at :49.
So with that in mind, I think for the next several weeks we should have you toss all rewards out on the line, away from you, so she drives ahead. Does she like a lotus ball or treat bugger? That would be ideal for throwing!!! That way you can throw it out on the line like for the middle jump, or when she drives ahead on a line at the end (no more stopping for cookies near you LOL!)
I think that will really help get more commitment!! She is doing well, so this will take it all to the next level. Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
>> I’ve been trying to time things without running to all obstacles with him. Is it okay right now to run with him to every obstacle knowing that working go go go lines will increase obstacle commitment and eventually I won’t need to go with him? Is it best right now for me to run with him knowing independence will come later? Hope this makes sense.
Run as much as needed for now, for always 🙂 Peeling away when it is not needed is going to potentially obscure the info, especially with a young dog. So yes – run all the lines right now and let the commitment build. This particular setup doesn’t really require lateral distance or anything, so running lines is perfect.
Good morning!
Opening line:
I know the backside circle at 3 might be the more obvious choice, but for him at 24”, I would love to see the BC 2-3 and do a backside slice instead! It might be a lot faster. He is accurate on the backside circle wrap, but he needs to slow way down to do it.
He missed 5 at :10 – I couldn’t see what you were doing but my guess is you were disconnected. Much better connection at :20 and later at 1:54 you ran a better line towards it too.
The line from the tunnel to the teeter looked good- you can show more of the wing on the circle wrap before the weaves. He has a good teeter stop so you can be running to where the bar meets the wing on the next jump to get an even better line to it.
At 1:05, you were playing with the teeter and did a blind for a moment – that is a great place to do the blind to the slice instead of the circle wrap! He is a BIG dude and the 24 inch bar is very tall… so he has to work soooo hard on the circles that I bet the blind to the slice on the other side is going to be easier and faster.
When you did the full run at 2:02, your running line to the wing was good but I think you released him too soon – you were still running forward so he was also running forward and almost went right past the jump.
I *think* you used a ‘break’ release from the teeter (hard to hear) but in this case, it is great to use your back verbal as the release so he doesn’t look straight and looks to the backside immediately.That weave entry is why we added the weave game to the 2nd set of games – almost every dog who has run this course missed it, and needed handler help. I saw your post about a photo – I will get a photo at some point this weekend so you can see what the setup it if is it not clear on the demo video. I am out of town and will have access to weaves later today. He got it the second time and again on the 4th time And when you did the full run at the end but you had to stand still – we want him to find it the first time and you can keep moving 🙂 If you can keep moving, you will be one or 2 steps further ahead on the next jump, setting a better line to the jump before the DW. At 2:12, as he was lifting off for the jump after the weaves, you were still passing the bar so he read it as a regular serpentine. If you can get past that wing and show countermotion to the next jump, he will set up a great turn – and it all comes back to being able to leave the weaves immediately.
The iz iz on the tunnel at :51 was late, it needs to be at least 6 feet before he enters the tunnel especially coming off that fast RDW 🙂 The RDW looked good on that first rep! He had trouble with it on the reps at the end, maybe he was more tired and moving differently?
Great job on the ending line, both times through!!! Your physical cues were very clear so he totally got it 🙂
>>
STD Course #2, I just remembered I also have a verbal for a situation like 16-17-18 = Fufu (Argh, and I am just creating the list but I have not completed it).I am also still practicing on the changing the verbal sounds, but I could not think about it on the big course, I even forgot what verbals I needed to use hahaha.>>
I have some games in the coming weeks that will help that 🙂 It is important but really hard to do on the big courses – so we will practice and build up to it 🙂
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
The opening looked really good. A couple of small details to consider:
On the BC 2-3, rather than stop on your lead our., release, then explode forward, try to stay in motion the whole time. That way, she won’t see a big acceleration followed by the turn cue, she will only see smooth motion followed by the turn cue.Great job getting the #4 tunnel!! As soon as you see her heading there, start the BC so you are finished and re-connected before she exits. Yu were late at :14 and she had a question. BIG difference at :38 and 1:21 when you were earlier and she nailed it! The layering there was very effective!
Mid course:
She needs to see and hear the ‘out’ cues for 8 while she is still a stride away from entering the 7 tunnel. At :19 you did it as she was exiting, which was too late to make the change. You were more dramatic with your cue at :43 and 1:27 but still did it after she exited, so you had to be dramatic and had to be relatively close to get it.For the 11 backside: Great job getting there! (You were a little more forward facing at 10 on the 2nd run, so she went wider – try to be moving towards 11 the whole time and not running straight t 10)
Is lalala the backside slice cue? And what is the twist verbal? If lalala is the backside slice, theoretically you wouldn’t need anything else, so she might have some questions on the verbals. It looks like you were doing it as a rear cross on the backside (totally good choice) so you would need to make it look different by turning your feet and shoulders to the center of the bar, then stepping to the center of the bar on takeoff side. Or, handle it as a serp on the landing side and flip her away (which could work here even though it puts you behind, because you could catch up while she is weaving :)) At :47, your physical cue looked like a backside circle wrap which is why she had a question. The cue at 1:37 was much clearer!!Closing:
Very nice first rep there!!! Nice weave independence!!! The slice on the 14 jump looked good and you can also try the wrap to compare which is faster. You can get a slightly tighter turn on the slice at 14 by putting your hand on the takeoff side of the jump rather than leaning back and indicating the landing side, which gets a slightly wider turn.You disconnected on the 2nd rep so she missed 15 at the very end.
On the pop out:
Doing the German turn on that backside was fun to try! To get it even tighter, get past the exit wing before she takes off – that means being even more lateral , running directly forward, and not helping her take the jump at all 🙂 You were late at 2:09 so she as wide.
The layering looked good! She had trouble coming back into handler focus there because the line is so challenging. You were using the verbals and physical cues pretty late: as she landed on the jump before, you gave her a forward cue so she took the last layer jump in extension. So even though she is working miles away, you still want to give the cues when she lands from the previous jump. You had the earliest time on the last rep of that section, and she had the best turn! Because there are so many options in front of her, you can do a spin or a double cross (FC or BC on the jump, FC or BC on the flat) to help adjust her line to the obstacle you want. At the very end you had a rep where you used her name – she responds really well to her name, so use it but use it sooner – before she makes a takeoff decision so you can get her to adjust and land facing the correct direction.
Last section – she appears to respond better to her name there than to her left cue – so you can cue the left and then go to her name in the jump tunnel discrim sections. You can also just try saying jump or left quietly – all the verbals were loud which will tend to propel her away on the line.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
I think his obstacle commitment is going generally well, unless there were issues that were not in the video? We can always get more with young dogs, especially small dogs.>> I know I’m not supposed to drop treats on the ground anymore but I was thinking about playing the lazy game some more?
Nope – no more treat dropping. No more lazy game for him 🙂 It has served its purpose and how we move onto into different use of reinforcement and other handling things.
>>What should I be doing? Is it my connection with him that’s bad?>>
Definitely more connection will help, especially on the exit of crosses. Also, you were doing plenty of thrown lotus ball and toy on the videos above – keep doing that a LOT!! And, mixing in a ton of Go GO Go lines will super help too!
Commitment is like coffee which needs to brew, or a fine wine that needs to develop – we keep up the connection and tossed toys, and he will develop great commitment 🙂
Tracy
Good morning! It is fun to get into the bigger sequences!! And great job staying engaged with the toy and lotus ball throwing and high energy interaction.
First video, Straight lines 4 ways on 2 jumps:
FC wraps:
More connection on the cross exit to tighten it up – you are turning and running away without looking at him very much, so he is drifting wide trying to figure out what you want. Stick closer to the line of the wing and make a big connection (with your dog side arm back) so he can see the new one immediately.RCs:
RC is late at 1:01, try to run more directly to the center of the bar. You were running an L shape to your line: towards the wrap wing then over to the RC wing. Try to run a diagonal line towards the center of the bar.Backside looked good!
Mix in a zillion more straight line GO GO GO moments because we want him to do a LOT of extension. So after every turn rep or two, do a straight line.
2nd video, adding the tunnel – yes definitely you want more connection here. Try to run these without pointing your arms to support the line at all, because your high arms actually turn your shoulders & block connection, which pulls him off the line – on the FC and RC reps, you had the high arms going and he had a lot of questions. On the backside rep, though… you didn’t use your arms to do much other than run and it was GREAT! He saw connection better and had lovely lines.
As with the first video: do lots and lots of straight line reps! There has been none so far on these 2 videos.The 3rd video had a Go rep and a wrap rep – the Go rep was really good, do LOTS more of these pleeeeze LOL!!! We want him on the lines more than we want him doing crosses at this point, to get massive commitment.
On the FC rep here, I think you were a little early decelerating for now (starting as he was lifting for the jump after the tunnel) – keep driving him forward until after he lands from the first jump after the tunnel, then decel and start the wrap cues. Doing more go reps will make the timing easier because he won’t be slowing down to expect a turn.Nice work here!!! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! She is doing great! I am super happy with this all! SO FUN!
Great job with your connection – she was nailing it because you were soooooo connected. Super! It might be easier to connect if you bring your wings in, meaning, run with your arms tighter to you and not fully extended back. You did this more at about 1:40-1:50 and it looked easier for you to keep up with your pocket rocket 🙂 Also, wings in tighter to you will help get your connections clearer after the blind – at 3:13 and 4:08, for example, you were finishing the blind with your arms out and she had trouble reading the connection change. Keeping your arms in tight to you will allow you to do the blind quicker and make a very clear connection to her eyes 🙂
About those verbals… you might need to run (literally run) the sequence before you bring her out to spot check the verbals. If you walk it, you won’t get the same feeling of full on terror that you probably get while running her LOL! And that added speed for you is what makes all the wrong verbals come out. LOL! So blast around it a few times so you can work on the correct verbals and timing them nice and early.
Also, spread this out now – you both need more room to work the skills, so you both get used to doing this on 20 foot distances or so 🙂
Also:
One thing I would like you to do now is, at the FF Home Base, bring her out playing and not with the cookie toss pattern game. She is relaxed here, she is engaged – so we can now shift to the things that will be useful in the trial environment, fo example, when you can’t come into the ring with cookies tosses. It is a good time to start preparing her for that! You can still to the pattern games in new environments, or at FF when the environment is harder if more people or dogs are there.Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
The camera position really helps! The answer is in the mechanics. I think you can slow this particular sequence down and do the crosses as single crosses for now rather than double, to get the mechanics firmly embedded. That will help all crosses, which is more helpful than doing this one particular sequence (and then we can go back to double later on).Overall – your timing is looking good, so keep that timing 🙂 She was getting a decent amount of them correctly especially by the later part of the video because you had more emphasize on connection and less emphasis on dog side arm as part of the connection. And, she kept going fast because you kept rewarding her, which is great: as we work out human mechanics, we want her to be fast and happy 🙂
The easiest place to see the mechanics is when you are running away from camera: Good timing on starting the cross at :24 but then look at :25 – yes, you had your toy across the body, but your dog side arm also came forward with it – blocking connection.
That also happened at :10 and :18 but it is not as easy to see because you are running towards the camera and we can’t see what she sees.On the double at :32, you can see the dog side arm trying to indicate the side change, so she didn’t get it as compared to :50 when you emphasized connection more
At 1:42, the toy was in the dog side arm and it was pulling forward, which breaks connection on the new side so she stayed out on the line.
Ouch about running into the wing!!! Good job rewarding her as you went down too!
So what to do? Bear in mind that when the dog-side arm comes to your side and then forward of your body line, it changes the cue and she will produce a different behavior. So:
Do only a single cross and you can take out the other two wings. If she begins on your left – the toy is in your left to start, and as you rotate through the cross, FC or BC, place the left arm across your belly and the toy on the opposite hip (right hip) – and lock the elbow of your right arm back and extended away from your body. The right arm is now the dog side arm, and we need it out of the way for the cross exits: lock it back, fully extended to her as if you are pointing your fingers at her nose. And don’t move it 🙂 It is the moving forward of that arm that buggers the cross.Start slow, be late on the cues (she will still read it if you are late), emphasize the mechanics… then we will get you faster and faster. The double crosses are not terribly important but nailing the mechanics of cross exits will make a world of difference in all of the other crosses.
Let me know if that makes sense! That one tweak of locking the dog side arm all the way back should make a big difference!
Tracy
Hi!
I figured she would be fine with this game when she jumped on the board sideways right at the beginning LOL! Good job with this session, taking it real slow and easy so it was all about strolling up the board and eating delicious treats. You can see her confidence growing each time up the board. Great job not rushing her or anything – to build true teeter confidence, it takes as long as it takes. You can add in the cookie toss to start it. She will lead the way with adding speed. Separately, keep working on turning around on an elevated plank, so she builds confidence there too!Nice work!
TracyHi!
The countermotion is looking really good! The one jump stuff looked great, and the ‘relaxed’ 2 jump stuff also looks great. You can add more running into it in order to leave sooner, as you mentioned: send to the first wing, run away, then add a deceleration as he is exiting the first wing, so you can then turn and send as he is just barely arriving at your leg. And you can try for 3 or o4 wraps in a row, which is going to get both of you running and being really quick. You start to too this towards the end: try to do this without a toy in your hand, because you were transferring the toy from hand to hand and it was actually delaying the verbal & physical cues. Sure, it was only delaying them by a heartbeat but he was going REAL FAST so you don’t have any extra time 🙂
>> Watching it back and knowing him, I could be leaving earlier on the wraps but just ended up distracted by which verbal, which wing, etc.>>
Yes, that is part of the joy and pain of this game: it all happens so fast that it will help get the verbals on auto-pilot so you don’t need to think about them. You were spitting them out really well!
The hose break looked so fun! And the race tracks looked super fun 🙂
>> Was there a “Verbals” exercise somewhere in our content (I saw Levy working on something that I don’t remember seeing in what I’ve looked through so far).
That is from this week’s games in CAMP – I think you are in CAMP too? If not, I will bring the game over to here, I was thinking that the MaxPuppers should do it too 🙂
Great job! Stay cool!
TracyHi!
I was going to suggest some of that felt stuff the horse people use in their arenas, but I think you covered it with “textile binder” 🙂 That would be perfect!T
Hi!
Wow, that ice cream cone has come in really handy, he has learned a zillion good skills from it!
>> I have tended to not run full speed with him as previously a lot of motion from me would kind of make his brains explode.>>
I think a good summer goal is to teach him to let you run without him losing his brains 🙂 You did a great job here with real running and he had a ton of success!
On the first video:
First 2 sequences looked great! Perfect!Seq 3 had some challenges on on the 4-5-6 line… try to open your shoulder back to him more. What I mean by that is to have your dog side arm pointing back to his nose the whole way through from the tunnel exit at #3 to the tunnel entry at #7. Freeze it at :32 and :46, you will see your eyes are on him but you shoulder is closed forward, hand at your side, which blocks some of the connection (and contributed to the bar coming down at :46). That draws him a little too much into handler focus so when you accelerated to 6 with your shoulder a little closed forward, he didn’t take the jump.
Compare it to the sequence at 1:00 as he exits the tunnel: note how your left shoulder is back to him and not pointed forward, so he was perfect on his jumping at 4-5 and at 1:03, your shoulder was open to him and your eyes were on him and he took 6. YAY!
WOW, sequence 4 looks SO MUCH BETTER!!! I am 100% happy with all of it except we can convince him to be tighter on the wrap. That is a dog training thing, because you cannot be earlier with your cues, you were very timely 🙂 He needs to learn how fun collection is, so for now make the 9 jump into just a wing. So you can change the 3-4 line to bring him to the middle jump (which is kind of the mirror image of the 3rd sequence) since #4 is now just a wing. Then you work your transition on the wing to wrap so he learns how much fun it is to wrap and chase 🙂 When he is loving that, we can add back the bar.
Standard course -very nice opening, both times! What a great lead out & stay!! Then a bit of teeter dock diving on the first rep – he thought it was a dog walk, possibly. He probably needs more experience on high speed into teeters, so feel free to use a target to help him out. 2nd rep was gorgeous!
The line across the back from the tunnel to the tunnel to the DW looked great – he definitely has some teeter/DW confusion here on the first rep, note how he stopped and flattened at the top of the DW up ramp, waiting to see if it drops. He was fine with it on the other reps when he knew it was the DW. Nice backside after the DW! At 2:25 your arm was a bit too high there, it was lower and more subtle on the others and worked most smoothly. It was back to perfect at 2:39.
That 9-10-11-12 to the tunnel discrimination is a doozy! And he is jumping 10, start giving him a turn cue for 11 (a left verbal and a brake arm) then when you see collection, go to your tunnel threadle cue.
On the tunnel threadle cue, you were rotating away from him, which hides the threadle arm a bit – you can try showing it more as you rotate away, to see if that helps him turn sooner. Some dogs do well with the earlier rotation away, some dogs do better when our upper body rotates towards them – but the threadle arm can be more visible on both.
At 1:06 you started the cues as he was taking jump 10 and he got it perfectly 🙂 YAY! Then you were too early at 2:30 and he pulled off 11. So I think the ideal timing is starting it as he is in the air over 10, which is what you did at 2:41 and he nailed it. Super!
Because the tunnel threadle is a rear cross on the tunnel entry, a go verbal will help keep him straight and you will probably also have to take a step or 2 towards 13 to help set the line, followed by a right turn cue for 13 to the aframe. You gave him the go at 2:44 but he was already in the tunnel and you were pulling away, so try adding the go verbal when he is still 2 meters away from the tunnel entry, and run a few more steps towards 13 to set the line before pulling away. You can still layer, but support the path to 13 by running parallel to his line until he is looking at 13.
You set that line after the a-frame up REALLY nicely at 1:39 including the layer, so now you can add in doing it off the rear cross on the tunnel entry. NICE Threadle on the jump before the poles at 1:43!!! The layering really helped you get there. And that weave entry is the reason we have the weave game added in Package 2 – almost every dog has missed it.
He was a little wide on the wrap at 19 at 1:55 and at 3:30 – you can begin the cue earlier, as he is lifting off for 18. You start it after he landed from 18, so he didn’t quite have time to process it and adjust.
Great job here! It think those little tweaks will smooth it all out. Let me know what you think!
Tracy
