Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Good morning!
Yes, crazy windy, I hear you are having tornado warnings out there too! Eek! I turned the sound off because I could only hear the wind, so we will assume all of your verbals were perfection 🙂>>I found myself without one of the wings needed for the Starfish and so since I was losing light fast I just threw in a jump instead.>>
Putting the jump in is fine, this one needs a lot of wings 🙂 Put the jump in a spot where he doesn’t have to rear cross or turn away, because that is much easier on just a wing than with the bar (there are so many options for turns on a bar, and with the wing, there are fewer options so he is likely to be more successful reading the turn away cues).
I thought he did well here in terms of speed and focus! We can use some placement of reinforcement stuff to help get even more:
The starfish has a lot of those rear crossy/turn away things, so for the smaller dogs I highly recommend a lot of thrown reinforcement for driving straight mixed in with all the rear crosses. The throws should be as long and far as possible, so he accelerates to the lotus ball (like you did at 1:30 :)) That will help to build more speed and confidence running past you! And for the rear crosses, try not to stop him for the reward – drag the reward on the ground and keep moving til he catches up – yes, some extra running for you (sorry!) but that will both build even more speed AND help eliminate the tasty grass distractions 🙂
He did really well on the sequences here – his commitment is looking really good and he was turning really well too! Yay! Looking at some of his questions:
>>The rep where he skipped the tunnel…it looked like he missed it because I may have been really crowding the entrance too much but not sure.>>
A little bit of crowding, a little bit of baby dog stuff where he was not quite fully focused 🙂 He did great on all of the other reps! So no worries about the miss on this one at the beginning of the session.
On the rear cross handling: Your rear crosses do NOT suck!!! He is reading them and we can move your line over a little bit: try to run more directly to the center of the bar, rather than pull to the other side of the jump and then push in later like at 1:18 and 1:37. He is reading it well, and he did well on the rear cross on the blue wing too! And balance those with multiple go go go reps because the go is more important than the rear crosses for the small dogs 🙂
He missed the white wing before the tunnel because of a little connection break/shoulder turn too early at 1:01. You were more patient and connection was much clearer at 1:15 and 1:34 – very nice!
You were a step too early with your FC at 2:03 – rMainly because the transition was missing the decel to commit him (the decel is the commitment cue). Remember to decelerate until he is pretty close to the jump, then you can turn and run the other way You accelerated then turned so he didn’t commit fully and went with you when you turned.
The only other question he had was at 2:12 when he ended up in the wrong side of the tunnel from what you wanted – your line of motion presented it. As he exited the wing, he saw both a bit of motion towards it as you stepped back, and a bit of connection to get him to your right side. He looked at you to confirm – then you closed your shoulder forward, which told him to NOT come to the right side, so he went with the motion and took the tunnel, good boy. He read it correctly as a threadle on the last rep. For the FC, you can run a similar line you did on the threadle, keeping your dog-side shoulder open so motion and connection both support going to the other side of the tunnel.
Great job here! Fingers crossed for more good weather and no tornados!!!!
TracyIt sounds like MN is having a CRAZY spring! It needs to calm down before June LOL!!!
>>Question on Max Pup 3 – I saw you posted that it was full. I have not signed up yet – I wanted to do basically what I’m doing now as the live dates mostly don’t work for me- so I’d watch those on video and then post my video for you. Is that still available?>>
The LIVE classes are full, but the regular online working option (like this :)) has room for everyone from this MaxPup who also wants to do the next one 🙂
On the single lap turns, it is a good warm up – and it will be easier if you start her in a sit so she can see the cue before she is moving, otherwise she will guess (and you will have to move backwards to get her unto the lap turn).
>>She has some serious wide outruns around those wings which is unusual for her – was my arm flinging all over??
I see what you mean! I think part of it was that you were pushing into the line, so she was pushing away from you (like at :37-:41)
You were also doing these as race tracks (post turns) so you can add in a ton of FCs/rocking horses to keep her tighter and I think that is also easier to send her away to the far wing to set up the lap turns. In fact, the more I watch – the more I like the FC option better for her because with the race tracks, I think she was just border-collie-ing and doing wider and wider loops, anticipating the lap turn and toy throw. So the FCs will keep hr nice and tight to you 🙂She is responding beautifully to the lap turns, so you can also try these with the tandem turns! I think she will do well with those too : )
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
She is going to need to buy you a few more udder tugs!!
The tunnel game looks great! Easy peasy. You can add in connecting with her closer to the exit of the first tunnel and then doing the tunnel threadle (so you can be in motion the whole time) and you can also call her out of the first tunnel and run – NO bypass cue, can she resist going back into the tunnel as you run past it? Start as far as needed to get success, of course 🙂Here are some core strengthening ideas – these are not the greatest examples of form because they were done as part of pre-hab/rehab but you can see the general idea. Posture of just standing in stack is really useful! And the positions changes are good too (2 different types of sits)
Single legs lifts are great and very hard.
Somewhere I have a video of my Export doing the down-to-stand-to-down behavior while I help up one of his front legs – incredible core strength! I can’t find the video but I will keep looking.
Note how these are all on stable surfaces, no need to do them on unstable surfaces yet.
Posture
Posture and leg lifts
Posture
Down to stand to down
Kick back stands to sit to stand
Roll back sit to stand to sit
Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! I think she did really well with the 5 foot distance and 12″ bar! Were both jumps at 12″? I think the first one was still lower which is good, but it was hard to tell.
For the 2nd jump: No, don’t lower it again. There are 2 things you can do with this set up now:
– keeping the 5 foot distance, make the 2nd jump into an oxer (double) – of the 2 jumps in the oxer, the first should be 8 inches and 5 feet from the real first jump. And the 2nd oxer jump can be 12 inches, and 6 inches behind the 8 inch jump. Let me know if that makes sense
🙂– in a separate session, keeping the 12″ jump as a single, do a warm up rep at 12 then show her a couple of reps at 14.
Let me know how it goes! It is fun to add more challenge for her!
TracyHi! Both of these videos look great – she is really quite brilliant! And fun!
She dd really well with the lateral lead out! The stays look lovely and that really helps. She was nice and close to the jump, to start, which also helps! Remember to use your dog-side leg to step to the jump – you were using it on the first couple of reps at the beginning but when you got to the landing side of jump 1, you were using your arm only. When she was on your left, you kept your feet together. The movement of the step will help her commitment when she gets further away, and helps you push off better to do the Front cross, for example, after it. When you revisited the dog-on-left at the end, you did use the step to the jump and I looked great.
When she was on your right in the 2nd part, you did use your leg on the takeoff side and landing, and it worked really well! She committed beautifully, you were able to add more distance and also push off really well too (the throwbacks looked good here and when you revisited the dog-on-left at the end!).
On the accordion grid:
The first interval between jumps 1 and 2 looks consistently lovely.
She gets hoppy going to the food target especially on the shorter distances (rep 3 looked the best because she had to extend on the longer distance and couldn’t really hop to the cookies 🙂
The ‘hoppy’ striding is NOT a jumping issue, it is a ‘yummy, cookies!’ response so there is nothing to be worried about – but we can change the reward to de-hop her striding 🙂 Two options are: put the reward plate with the cookies waaaaay far away, 15 feet from the last jump, so if she feels the need to do the joyous cookie hop, then she will do it well after jump 3 🙂 Or, you can use the dragging toy – she is looking great here so the dragging toy reward might be both a great option to get her to hop less, and a great challenge to se if she can remain balanced and organized even when she is more excited 🙂Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyThank you for the info! It is something about how Apple communicates with Google-owned YouTube, with WordPress in between in this case. Generally, it happens, then goes away (someone fixes something in the software, somewhere) and pops up again in a few months. It has never happened on a PC.
I also prefer Apple devices for all the heavy duty stuff, and the Android and PC are used to make sure everything works on all platforms 🙂 thanks for letting me know how susceptible Android is to hacking!!>>How awesome they can be used in both roles! Reassuring and a distraction😊.
>
Thankfully she’s not rich strike 😳🤣!>Ha! She is TOTALLY not Rich Strike in terms of chomping her friends LOL! She is fast like Rich Strike, though 🙂
I have used the stable pony concept a lot, most recently with Voodoo (adult, replaced confident male) being stable pony for Hot Sauce who was nervous as a puppy. And Contraband had always been a relaxed happy dude, so he was stable pony for Covid puppy Elektra who was shy. This included walking together in new places so the happy dog could model behavior, and crating next to each other!
T
Hi!
>> I think part of the problem was me taking find my face SUPER LITERAL and waiting for EYEBALLS ON MY EYEBALLS. I will reduce my criteria and throws.
Yes, the full name of the game is “Find My Face-ish And Thanks For Not Sniffing, Biting, Barking, or Running Off.” 😀😃
Wow, this is a great update!!! You have a built-in Team Kryptonite (Potter and Annalise :)) to help train Promise to relax and engage with you. That is freakin’ awesome!!!!! And click/treat to you for NOT going too long or letting her get overcooked LOL!!! The weave pole game is impressive!!!
Does Promise really love Potter? Does being near him help her relax, kind of like a stable pony? If so, he can be her helper in arousing situations!
Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
A couple of ideas for you on this one, because the FMF game is really helpful for young dogs in the ring!The main thing I see is that you can build up the pattern game more, tossing the treats closer and without find my face yet. I suggest that because of the the high latency (delayed response) here in the home environment, particularly at the beginning. We want the pattern game to be both immediately recognizable for the dog and also very stimulating in a good way, having the lowest latency possible with the immediate response of eating the cookie and then getting excited about re-engaging with you. This can be done at home to the point where it is really easy and fun – cookie toss with the search and then re-engagement within a heartbeat of getting to the cookie. You will see the speed of response, and no sniffing in between the grab of the treat and return to engagement.
Having that response in training will accomplish 3 things: it will transfer the skill very easily to much more challenging environments (trials, pools :)) and also it will bring that positive CER associated with the game to those environments too, which helps develop a positive CER for engagement in those environments too! And that all leads to the low latency instant engagement response we want when you take the leash off – it basically becomes a reflex for the dog.
When you are getting that low latency, instant response, you can add in more of the FMF game. You can keep a little more of an eyeball on him when playing it, because he doesn’t need to makefull eye contact to get rewarded – standing behind you and waiting patiently is rewardable too as an approximation of the behavior, because it is engagement without sniffing, leaving, barking or biting. So keep a tiny bit more connection so you can see what he is doing, and reward approximations.
You can also have several treats in your hands – by going to your pocket for the next treat, or leaving your hand in your pocket, he was focusing on your pocket 🙂 Now, that is still rewardable (looking at your pocket or at your hands) because it is still a good approximation and not sniffing, leaving, barking, biting. But that is also where a really strong pattern game comes in, because the look at my face element is in place from that when there is a super quick response.
>>Is there anything here you’d like to see more of from us or for us to revisit?
When the pattern games and FMF on the flat here are super strong, you can definitely take it to the jumps so you can reward a LOT for him finding jumps that you are near.
And then, it is mainly about bringing the games to new places, developing the toolbox so you see what helps the most, especially in the last moments outside the ring, to the line, and through the release. Planning those and planning lots of NFC runs where he gets rewarded for taking the things in front of him will really help!
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyYes, that would totally work to deliver the cookie for a job well done before moving on to the next part of the course and the next distraction 🙂 Catch him in the act of making great choices and reward the moment 🙂
TracyGood morning!
>>At home, I tried the tire and he happily does it so it’s another obstacle where he’s different in training. He does the one at run thru better than class. Mine does not have the same frame that is easy to run under.
It is probably the difference in the frame, so the low tire (so he can’t go under) and the wings next to it (so he can’t go through the frame but not take the tire) can help him.
>>In this week’s class I brought a person that distracts him as Kryptonite. So the other dog came too. Fortunately the weather was much cooler as he did lots of running. He was fine with the other dog but kept running back to the person. I explained she might need to increase distance but it was hard to get enough distance for him. Even with her in the car, he went searching for her.>>
Interesting! Super high level of Kryptonite!!
>>I did have a chance to do pattern on arrival but he was fine in parking lot. But she said could not hear his screaming when she headed off first without him. Before the 1st run, he was able to relax on bed and do few actions while she was present.>>
Good! It is a good start!
On the first videos, here some general impressions then training ideas below:
>>I couldn’t get him to do much tricks to start his 1st run with the person present at a distance
Wow, this is IMPRESSIVE kryptonite LOL!!! He must LOVE the person very much!
>>When I disconnected, he would head off.>>
He started off well at the start line in terms of engagement, but then as you mentioned: there was a little disconnect at the beginning then he took off – he was so distracted by the Kryptonite that he simply couldn’t ‘see’ the jumps (or teeter) unless you were quite perfect.
When he was further away, more on the side of the field with the a-frame, he was pretty strong with his agility, much closer to normal Sprite, and he did lots of good work!! The good news is tha he was able to recall each time he scooted away and then he was able to do the teeter to the jump to the tunnel (turning away from the Kryptonite!!!) at the end.2nd run:
>>I was too distracted with putting Kryptonite in car and all his running around to search for her that I forgot to start recording. I could not get him to do any tricks. When I got to start line and removed his leash, he went sprinting off and ran to the back door of the inside building. He eventually ran over to the gate on other side and stared into the car. She said he was looking at her but the windshield is tinted so not sure if he could see.>>
He might not have been able to see her, but he could smell her 🙂 It made your class a little more challenging but the great news is that you have a Kryptonite who is willing to help you train!
>>I totally don’t remember the 2nd run but it was tough like the 1st one but little better since he mainly ran off at the start. Think in that run I went to far past a jump as I forgot the next jump was serpentine. My instructor said I should keep my arm extended so I just smiled as I remembered to intentionally pump my arms instead so he was following well. My friend said she noticed I kept my arms low.>>
Yay! It is not easy to handle when the dog is not fully focused, so your hand might have been lovely – and his distraction is a reflection of the training and not so much the handling. The Krpytonite made things hard but we can plan to help him out. It sounds like if he can handle having his Kryptonite friend there, then ANY distraction is going to be super easy.
3rd run video:
I loved your energy moving him to the line! He was staying with you but it was SO HARD for him to see the obstacles in the Kryptonite distraction haze. Good job staying in motion – he got in gear in the back of the ring.
In future kryptoniting 🙂 you can start him in the back of the ring to get focus more quickly.I like that he was sass barking at you at 1:43 when you disconnected, rather than taking off – that probably means he was overcoming the distraction challenge! And he didn’t run off when you brought him back through the tire. YAY!
>>My instructor said that was interesting training and I needed higher value rewards.That is something I was going to ask you about. When presenting the big distractions, I take a ‘fight fire with fire’ approach. For my dogs: No distractions? Normal cookies like kibble or string cheese and regular toys. Medium distractions? Slightly better cookies like cheddar cheese or meat-based dog treats and fun fluffy tug toys. High distractions? Insanely stinky treats like meatballs, pizza crust, Egg McMuffins, hot dogs, and the highest value toys like tennis balls or frisbees. So in the face of the Kryptonite friend, you can try adding a new high level of reinforcement instead of the regular level.
>> I’m not sure how to make that easier because he does not react at home. He does not react with other people. He would not even take the reward at the start line. Just knowing she was present he went searching. I did not try with her in the ring.>>
You were smart to keep her as far as possible to get some success going! It was a good assessment of where he is, in terms of training with the highest level of distraction 🙂 The good news? You are highly unlikely to see that level of distraction at a trial 🙂 So we can use the Kryptonite for training!
The first thing to do is find out what you can use as reinforcement in her presence. Ideally, it would be some type of food (crazy high value to start) and we can build that up, using her as the reward: if he will eat the cookie, he can then go visit his kryptonite friend 🙂 So we are basically rewarding eating 🙂 and getting him in the habit of eating treats in her presence. Start with very high value stuff! And she can be your ‘let’s go’ remote reinforcement reward station:
– Sprite does a trick, for example
– He eats the cookie
– Then he gets the BIG reward, which is the visit with the friend 🙂Start with the Kryptonite friend visible but not close (so he doesn’t try to search for her), Sprite on leash, and crazy delicious food rewards.
My guess is he will catch on VERY quickly because he is brilliant, he likes food a lot, and he knows a ton of tricks and games. So if you can enlist the help of your Kryptonite friend again (not in classes, just in a quiet training setting), you can start with figuring out what food is high value reinforcement, then teaching him that he needs to eat it and then he can visit.
Then add in the games one-by-one: pattern game with her nearby, tricks, line up, off leash offered engagement, etc – with the cookie being eaten in order for him to go visit and then extending the amount of time and # of cookies before he is sent to visit his friend 🙂>>Class 5-16
Run Thru Sat 5-21 which I likely will skip due to work and Sun trial
USDAA Trial 5-22 Standard and Gamblers
NADAC Trial 5-29 – my mother attends but he’s less distracted by her and she hides>>All good! If you can figure out the reinforcement in the presence of the Kryptonite and play some of the games successfully before the next class, you can try more Kryptonite at class. If you don’t have time this week to do it, no problem, you can keep class more ‘normal’ because the Kryptonite friend was so distracting.
Bummer about work on 5-21, it would be great to do the run through! The trial schedule has a lot of god opportunity coming up, especially for training runs!!!!Keep me posted and let me know what you think about the Kryptonite games ideas 🙂
TracyUgh, sorry about the crashing issue! We have found that to be an issue with longer threads with lots of videos, on certain devices: ipad, iphone, Mac, depending on which update it is. Apple software doesn’t always play nicely with others, but it always catches up. So let me know which device you were getting the crashes on and which platform it was running. I have not seen it happen on a PC or Android device but we are keeping track. My iPad also crashes YouTube uploads when there has been an update, so my guess is that it has something to do with YouTube and iOs not liking each other very much LOL!. Let me know the details and I will send it over to the tech guy 🙂
I will reply to your post in your Part 2 thread 🙂
Hi again!
I love your start cards, such gorgeous photos!The accordion looks great here – I think in coming weeks, the compression portion at 4.5 feet can go to 6 feet. You can also play with the set point at 5 feet, 5.5 feet, and 6 feet. That will help develop his striding on the longer distances too! But no rush…. Once a week of jumping is really all he needs for now. He is still growing a lot and developing a lot, so we don’t want to get locked into anything yet because it will change as he physically matures.
On the starfish:
He is doing really well finding his lines on the wings, especially on the line from the tunnel to the wing for the race tracks! Yay!
Use your tunnel exit verbals sooner, such as the left/ right/go at least 3 feet or more before his head goes in. And for the in in on the wing after the tunnel, a name call before he enters the tunnel will get him coming out looking for you, (rather than going straight) at which point you can do the in in for the wing.For the 2nd in in like at :47 and 1:08 and 1:54- he knew something was up but needs the arm cue to turn him away (Like at :51 and 1:19) on the flat – all of the motion was straight and the verbal doesn’t override. that yet. You got it really nicely at 1:35 and 2:05 and 2:40 with the motion and arm cues.
Also, you will have more time to do all the arms and words and motions if you either leave the toy in one hand or put it in your pocket – you were switching it to the other hand before giving the cue, which delays the info for a speedster like Ronan 🙂
You can also send him to the outside of that wing rather than threadle it, and add in a tunnel threadle after it – it will be super challenging too!
Great job! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
